The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs is being attacked for its statistics on individually owned land. Conservative media are accusing the government of distorting the figures in order to incite animosity towards the rich, specifically that land is owned by householders and that since the government based its statistics on the individual as a unit it therefore exaggerated the imbalance in land ownership. The conservative media says that if you calculate by the number of households instead of land owners, it is the richest 2.8 percent of the country that owns 51.5 percent of the land, not just one percent. They are also saying that the percentage of households with land is close to three times higher than the 28.7 percent stated by the government.
At first that seems to make sense. The government does deserve criticism for releasing only statistics based on individual citizens. However, the conservative media’s motives do not look pure either. It makes you wonder if the hidden intention is to turn the trend in popular opinion around. Even if half the country’s land is owned by 2.8 percent of the country, that does not change the essence of the problem. Furthermore the conservative media’s figures also have serious distortions. They say the "general interpretation" is to assume that everyone who owns land is a householder. People rich in land assets usually spread the ownership papers out among family members, and yet the conservative media are ignoring that. The result is that children of families rich in land assets are stuck being householders, leading to strange figures such as that which states that 80 percent of households own their own land.
We do not mean to attack the conservative media. We only worry that such criticism could split public opinion and make social conflict worse. If the government wants to put a quick end to the cycle of criticism and controversy it needs to hurry and disclose real estate ownership figures in detail but within limits that do not infringe on individual privacy. If by chance it is taking its time measuring what would be the right moment to make a public appeal about its new real estate policy scheduled to be announced at the end of August, it might end up being criticized for engaging in populism.
The Hankyoreh, 21 July 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Disclose Everything About Real Estate Ownership |
