By Michael Breen
The snaring of former President Roh Moo-hyun in a bribery investigation that has already bagged his family and politicians from the main parties confirms the depressing assumption that, even in democratic Korea, corruption thrives at the very top.
This does not come as a shock. It's hard to surprise a people hardened by endless cases of politicians and those in trusted positions of authority, such as regulators, heads of the tax office, police, and prosecutors routinely busted for power abuse.
But it is depressing because Roh is a decent man. He is, it could be said, the Jimmy Carter of Korean politics, the outsider and surprise winner who was disappointing in office, but popular as an ex-president because he is good.
He had hitherto avoided the cloud of corruption that has misted the reputation of every leader since the republic was founded. But the sky is darkening for Roh, who is to be questioned next week about illicit money apparently spread around by Park Yeon-cha, a businessman and close backer. If he is charged, and his wife, brother, son, and others along with him, his family will join the Blue House hall of shame.
And that's not good for the current president, Lee Myung-bak. If an honest everyman like Roh Moo-hyun succumbed to temptation while in office, what, people are reasonably wondering, might the former construction company head be up to as we speak?
This case is hurting President Lee in another way. It's widely assumed that the Blue House is pushing the investigation of the former first family. It was customary in the old days to investigate the previous administration for corruption to make sure that they or their faction didn't come back into power and to make the new regime look clean by comparison.
That doesn't happen now because the judiciary is independent of the executive branch, something for which we have Roh to thank.
Most likely, prosecutors are simply following the leads coming from their questioning of Park, as they are obliged to. Far from directing things, President Lee is no doubt reading about events in the newspapers as they unfold, like the rest of us.
But voters are not very trusting and there's a widespread assumption that judicial independence only technically applies. Even sensible and well-placed people believe that behind the scenes, this Blue House has the kind of power lust that we haven't seen for a while. For evidence, they are stitching together several unrelated issues, such as the arrest of Minerva, the online commentator whose financial predictions moved markets, the takeover by the government of the KRX, the private company which operates the stock market, and the removal of an MBC news anchor who made critical comments about the government on air.
One conspiracy theory going around is that there has been some bartering about revealing two "lists," one of the customers of Jang Ja-yeon, the actress who committed suicide apparently distressed about being forced to work as a prostitute, and the other of recipients of money from the businessman Park Yeon-cha. The losers, the theorists say, are Roh and supporters in the ruling party of President Lee's factional rival, Park Geun-hye. The winners are those in the media establishment whose names are not being revealed and who are exposing others.
Such is the mistrust of the judicial system that, the higher you go, the more likely people are to believe such theories. This one was explained to me this week by a former Blue House official.
Whatever the truth, such theories underlie political emotions and are sure to drive a desire for revenge when this administration steps down.
Michael Breen is chairman of Insight Communications Consultants, Exclusive Partner of FD International. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.
