Free lunch campaign puts focus on welfare

SEOUL, South Korea – Seoul’s mayor is asking voters to reject free lunches for all elementary and middle school students in a referendum today that has become a test of how far a resurgent South Korea should go in developing a welfare state.

As rising costs batter the U.S. and European governments, the $370-million-a-year proposal has sparked months of heated debate, giving a glimpse of Asia’s fourth largest economy at a crossroads. Having rebuilt after the Korean War and faced down a brutal financial crisis in the late 1990s, the nation is debating the role of government and how much it can afford in social programs.

Seoul already provides free lunch to 35 percent of elementary and middle school students, and the city parliament has approved raising that to 100 percent. A referendum is the only way for conservative Mayor Oh Se-hoon to reverse that decision. If he succeeds, the city would instead provide lunch for half of all students, including those in high school.

Oh has vowed to quit if voters go against him.

Supporters of the 100 percent free lunch program say it’s needed to prevent schoolchildren from discriminating against one another because of family income levels. They argue it would improve unity at a time when the psychological division between haves and have-nots is widening.

The other side says only 50 percent of Seoul’s schoolchildren should be fed using taxpayer money until the country is better off. They accuse liberals of pursuing welfare policies that could wreak havoc on the national budget, pointing to fiscal crises in Europe and Latin America.

Many South Koreans remain wary about government spending after the 1997 financial crisis, which led to massive layoffs and bankruptcies as the government sought emergency funds from the International Monetary Fund.

Conservative President Lee Myung-bak has waded into the debate, casting an absentee vote last week. Though he hasn’t said how he voted, he has repeatedly warned against “welfare populism” in speeches.

Oh, who is aligned with Lee, has bet his mayorship on the vote. He kneeled, bowed and shed tears in a nationally televised press conference Sunday as he appealed for a high turnout. If less than a third of Seoul’s 8.4 million eligible voters go to the polls, the ballots won’t be counted, and the parliament’s decision to extend the program to all students below high school would stand.

Some economists say Oh and Lee are afraid of a potential surge in public demands for welfare programs.

“Conservatives fear the very word ‘free’ may spread,” said Kang Seong-hoon, who teaches economics at Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul.