hankyoreh

The forceful storm of public opinion that erupted during the June 2 local elections has been nothing more than a light breeze to President Lee Myung-bak. He has neither wavered nor changed in any significant way. His address to the people yesterday can be summed up as an expression of the will to carry on with the path he has followed to date. It seems that the long spell of silence from him since the elections ended was not a period of reflection and self-examination.

The content of his address nearly left viewers hard-pressed to believe it was coming from a president whose party lost badly in the elections. The only sign was a short and ceremonious bit of lip service when he said, “I am taking the popular sentiments expressed through the elections very seriously.”

Instead, he dedicated more time to blowing his own trumpet, saying things like “In the greater current of history, the Republic of Korea is traveling the right path.”

If this is his fundamental understanding of the situation, any calls for reform in his governance will become nothing more than a hollow echo. The president stated unequivocally, “I will firmly maintain the keynote of my governance.” He even coldly rebuffed an outpouring of calls from the ruling party for personnel reshuffling by saying, “Before blaming others, you should have the mindset of finding responsibility in yourselves.”

That President Lee’s arrogance and self-righteousness remain as strong as ever was nowhere more apparent than in his attitude toward Sejong City Development Plan revisions and the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. As though paying no mind to the fact that the election results effectively meant a death sentence for the two projects, the president delivered more of the same nonsense, and said, “Divisions in public opinion have become severe as policy issues have turned into political issues.”

In the case of the Sejong City revisions, the Lee Myung-bak administration should by all rights withdraw its own revision plan, if only in the interest of fixing its own mess, but it instead passed the ball over to the National Assembly’s court. There was no apology for the divisions in public opinion and the waste of national resources the government has invited to date, nor any pledge to faithfully execute the original plan.

The new policy direction President Lee chose for the Sejong issue is at least better than his intention to push forward with the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. Yesterday’s address had the President sounding like a broken record, talking about how “the Four Major Rivers Restoration is a project for saving life” and “a driving force for the Republic of Korea’s development.”

President Lee was awash in a stubborn refusal to let any public opposition sway him when it comes to the Four Major Rivers project, no matter how fierce it may be. In his words, he emphasized “more discussions and collection of opinion,” but this too appears nothing more than posturing, and anything but an open and genuine posture. Indeed, it sounds like a warning that the publicity campaign marshaling all manner of resources will become even stronger in the days ahead. With this address, President Lee confirmed once again that the people have a long way to go before they can convince him to bring about change.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]