The late President
Roh Moo-hyun |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
After retirement, former President Roh Moo-hyun regretted his decision to cut taxes while in office, confessing the measure was driven by political considerations.
He thought of himself as an ``unfortunate'' President.
``The previous liberal government was determined to cut taxes to curry favor with the media and public,'' the late Roh wrote in one of a series of essays compiled by his aides and published posthumously in a book, titled ``The Future of Liberals.''
In an effort to describe the ineffectiveness of the tax cuts to help boost the economy, Roh used the analogy of a dying patient who is destined to die no matter what medication he takes, believing that doing so will make him better.
``The truth is that there was not much redistribution during my presidential term. Nevertheless, I was painted by the media as a leader going on a spending spree of redistribution.''
The aides released the book Wednesday. It was culled from Roh's writings on his personal Web site and also words he spoke to his aides.
Roh described himself as an ``unfortunate'' head of state, as he wasn't able to follow through on his signature policy for the poor, attributing what he called a failure in fulfilling his commitments to the nature of the presidency.
He said those who are in power are forced to do the work in a way they don't quite agree with in the name of national interest ― which is why he referred to those who hold the top job as ``unfortunate.''
He regretted his administration's decision to dispatch troops to Iraq and not to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Korea, saying these were examples of instances when he was unable to follow his heart.
Roh said labor turning against liberals was the main reason the then-ruling party's candidate was defeated in the presidential election in 2007.
``When I was in office, the government introduced a set of measures to create a flexible labor market. We weren't courageous enough to define the outsourcing of a workforce as illegal and as a result, this hurt workers,'' he said.
hkang@koreatimes.co.kr
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