hankyoreh

President Lee Myung-bak’s approval ratings have dropped to 28 percent, according to the results of a survey conducted by the ruling Grand National Party’s Yeouido Institute on May 5. It is clear that Lee’s low ratings have been caused, in part, by the current turmoil over resumption of U.S. beef imports. However, this incident alone cannot explain such a sudden drop in Lee’s ratings at such an early stage of his term. According to surveys conducted in April, the figure was already down at around 30 percent. For this reason, Lee and Cheong Wa Dae, or the Blue House, need to understand the significance of his declining popularity.

All of South Korea’s former presidents, including Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, saw a decrease in popularity at the end of their respective tenures. But in the early stages of their presidential terms they were powerful leaders, earning approval ratings of over 70 percent each.

In the United States, the press and the general population seem fairly generous toward a new president in the early days of the person’s term. The same cannot be said about President Lee. It seems that his approval ratings have not fallen temporarily, nor have they dropped because of any one issue. People’s general disappointment with the new government’s way of administering affairs of state has pulled Lee’s popularity down, and his administration is falling into a political crisis just two months after its inauguration.

Reverend In Myung-jin, the former chairman of the GNP’s ethics committee, said, “President Lee seems like he’s not behaving very humbly. It’s not right for him to try to win people over when he should be serving the people.” As the reverend says, the key to the sudden drop in Lee’s approval ratings is arrogance. Since the president’s transition team first began its work, Lee has repeatedly made declarations and then pushed ahead with unilateral action. Distrust of this kind of attitude has erupted because of his actions on the U.S. beef issue.

From now on, President Lee should change his mode of operations. Before insisting on policies that only he believes to be right, he should first ask for people’s opinions and then respect them. To regain the people’s trust, he should give up some of his more controversial policies, such as the cross-country canal project. He can’t say with confidence that he is pushing that project through for fear of public opinion against it. The beef issue will not be resolved with him saying that students and consumers are under the control of leftist forces. He needs to look back at the mistakes he himself made when the negotiations were conducted.

Approval ratings rise and fall, but it is difficult to recover from low ratings once the figure falls below a certain level. We hope that Lee will not face problems during the rest of his term due to a continued lack of popularity.

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