hankyoreh

Hwang Joon-bum

During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Lee Myung-bak counted as his successes for 2010 the achievement of a 6.1 percent growth rate, South Korea becoming the seventh largest global exporter, the conclusion of free trade agreements with the EU and United States and reductions in youth unemployment. As for things to reflect upon, he cited public insecurity and disappointment regarding defense and national security.

Lee seems to have more than just security failures to reflect upon, however. This year, the middle year of his term, he was fixated on “results” and failed to abandon his unilateral, go-it-alone national management style, and in the process brought about failures in personnel management and creating unity. The light has also faded on the “fair society” push.

First, there is the question of the monopolization of power by a small group of men, as revealed during the illegal civilian surveillance and daepo phones with stolen numbers incidents. With revelations and suspicions coming from both the ruling and opposition parties, key administration figures were named as the wire-pullers behind these incidents. However, the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) is thoroughly blocking the matter from crossing the wall into the Cheong Wa Dae with the voluntary resignations of Lee Yeong-ho, former senior secretary to the president for employment and social welfare, and Jeong In-cheol, former presidential secretary for planning and management. The Cheong Wa Dae did not launch any additional investigations or take separate measures against an an administrative official who lent to Office of the Prime Minister ethics office illegal phones used in the destruction of evidence. Cheong Wa Dae is deaf to calls from 60 percent of the public for a reinvestigation. This is why Lee’s pledge, made during his Aug. 15 address in which he called for a “fair society,” that he would take a good look at himself first sounds empty. There is sneering even within Cheong Wa Dae that there is no “fair society” if the presidential official doesn’t do anything with the illegal civilian surveillance issue.

The failures of candidates Kim Tae-ho, Shin Jae-min and Lee Jae-hoon immediately after they were named during the Aug. 8 cabinet reshuffle revealed the fragile base of the “fair society.” Their shortcomings were mostly discovered during Cheong Wa Dae’s own vetting process. That Lee was willing to put problematic figures in high office even while preparing to make “a fair society” a keynote of his administration revealed the innate limits of the “fair society.” Lee has also sparked controversy for regionally biased personnel decisions, with three of the service chiefs of staff hailing from the Gyeongsang provinces, including Amy Chief of Staff Kim Sang-ki, a junior of Lee’s at Pohang’s Dongji Commercial High School. That Lee called his military appointments “the fairest appointments” despite this left many dejected.

In the security and defense sphere, the administration revealed its incompetence, so much so that Lee himself said South Korea has much to reflect on. The administration, trying to cleanse itself of the criticism of its incompetence in the security sphere that arose following the sinking of the Cheonan in March, took a hardline against North Korea, and was met with a crushing defeat in the June 2 local elections. The government talked big about strengthening security and military reform, but it could not stop the attack on Yeongpyeong Island in November, and showed again its poor ability to respond.

In the area of policy, too, the Lee administration has shown a unilateral attitude. Despite the creation of presidential committees on social unity and even the position of presidential secretary of social unity, social unity has grown even more distant. In the case of the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, Lee is bent on completing the project during his term, despite public opposition and criticism from all walks of life. Because of this, the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) railroaded next year’s budget and Waterfront Act through the National Assembly. On Monday, too, Lee said the people who oppose the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project now will evaluate it positively when they see it finished. The public is taking issue with his unilateral race to get it done, but Lee’s attitude is that it will all be fine if only the result is good.

The controversy over the revisions to the Sejong City Development Plan, which was brought to a conclusion when the National Assembly rejected it in June, sucked the country into a vortex and deepened public tensions for some 10 months after Lee brought it up in September of last year. The deepening of tensions between the government and the Buddhist community following the cutting of the temple stay budget during the railroading of the budget in August was not unconnected to the goal-focused Lee, who set a deadline for the passing of the budget as a guideline.

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