hankyoreh

Dec. 1. (Blue House photo pool) 　

President Park Geun-hye weighed in at a senior Blue House secretariat meeting on Dec. 1 on the controversy over an internal audit report for her former chief of staff, when she was a second-term lawmaker, Chung Yoon-hoi. Park’s remarks boil down to two things: one, there is no “abuse of power” by power holders behind the scenes, and two, she plans to investigate the document leak thoroughly and make an example of the culprit or culprits. She did use the term “national scandal” at the meeting, but she was only talking about the leak. She completely ignored the real scandal, namely the allegations that government decisions are being dominated by certain behind-the-scenes power holders.

With Park’s remarks, the findings of the prosecutors’ future investigation are basically a foregone conclusion. South Korean prosecutors being what they are, they are almost certain not to step outside the guidelines Park drew for them. The focus is going to be on finding and punishing whoever leaked the documents, while granting a free pass on the interference allegations. Don’t expect any kind of thorough investigation aimed at getting to the truth.

Ironically, the president‘s remarks are a perfect example of why people keep talking about her administration’s “hidden heavyweights,” and how you have to “talk to the right people.” No one would be talking about the “men behind the curtain” if Park was actually doing a decent job running the country. Her administration was faster than any before it to have these kinds of secret power struggles surface, and most observers agree that the document flap is really just the tip of an iceberg of intense internal feuding. Not only does Park seem to be taking any responsibility for this - she doesn’t even want to face the truth.

A national leader needs to be someone who is ever conscious of the potential for her aides to abuse power and can even-handedly manage her own power structure. We also need someone resolute enough to give the boot to aides who do cause problems. All Park seems to do is rush to the defense of her those in her inner circle. With things reaching the point they have, we’d expect the people named in the document to be suspended from their duties, at least for as long it takes prosecutors to investigate. We haven‘t seen any signs of that kind of presence of mind. At this rate, the allegations are just going to grow.

Park’s views on the media are positively dangerous. At the meeting on Dec. 1, she railed at the Segye Ilbo newspaper for “reporting things that they could have confirmed or denied with the least effort without even contacting the people involved.” But the problem is that this isn’t a case where the “least effort” could clear things up. The prosecutors may take these people at their word when they say “not me,” but the media won’t. What’s “abnormal” is a country whose presidential office dismisses a document that it produced itself as a “tabloid sheet.” Reporting on a Blue House report is a perfectly natural part of fulfilling the mission of the media. What kind of shameless president gets angry at the newspapers instead of blaming herself for leaving her country in this abnormal state?

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