By Oh Young-jin
Assistant managing editor
Don’t blame President Lee Myung-bak.
It is not President Lee’s fault but our own.
I am dumbfounded by the current confluence of scandals. Undoubtedly many people feel the same.
Former National Police Agency Commissioner General Kang Hee-rak is suspected of receiving 100 million won in bribes. Former Korea Coast Guard chief Lee Gil-bum is suspected of receiving a smaller sum.
A presidential aide, Bae Geon-ki, has tendered his resignation after being found to have received a significant amount in bribes.
The trio shares three things in common. They all once played the role of watchdog ― Kang as police chief; Lee as head of the maritime police and Bae as a guard against corruption among presidential aides and relatives ― and the bribes they all allegedly received came from the same pocket ― that of Yu Sang-bong, the 65-year-old broker and lobbyist who sought their influence to steer his way the lucrative deals each involving billions of won to operate cafeterias for workers on big construction project sites. Plus, they are all embarrassing President Lee.
Yu allegedly jotted down a list of influential people on the take from him but we may never know the other names involved.
Some newspapers are starting to call this “hamba-gate.” Hamba is a construction site cafeteria and the word is most likely a form of “hanba” in Japanese, meaning billets for workers. It is still not out of the ordinary to hear Japanese words used as worksite jargon, a vestige from the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial occupation.
What has been unfolding in hamba-gate has few surprises.
Police corruption is nothing new (I want to underscore that most policemen adhere to their mission of serving and protecting). In Kang’s case, he allegedly went the extra mile of informing Yu in advance of the impending case and advising him to flee the country.
During the 9 o’clock primetime television news Monday night, an anonymous senior police source showed no mercy for Kang, remembering that his former chief, while in office, had acted as if he was a champion anti-corruption fighter.
One Korean saying encompasses all three cases ― it’s like leaving a hungry cat in charge of a fish stall. And it’s not fair to dump all the blame on President Lee, who worked rough and tumble from one construction to another before becoming CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction. After all, the contract he signed with us, the people, when he was elected, doesn’t include any reference to a clean and honest government.
Now, President Lee’s nominee for the head of the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), the supreme watchdog of social ills, is also in trouble.
Chung Dong-ki, a former high-ranking prosecutor, served as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, Bae’s boss from his Cheong Wa Dae days. Chung headed a quasi-government agency before being named for the BAI job.
He is under fire for receiving 100 million won per month for seven months from the law firm Barun where he worked while he headed the legal team of President Lee’s transition committee. Compare Chung’s seven-month aggregated wages with your annual pay and most of us would harbor a bit of resentment.
Deplorable as it may sound, however, an unwritten rule in the legal community is that senior judges and prosecutors make their lifetime’s earnings in the first year after they retire. In this, Chung can present extenuating circumstances. He, however, committed a horrific crime of crossing public sentiment, when he said, “There is nothing legally wrong with it.”
Chung is not Lee’s only appointee to suffer a backlash. In the previous reshuffle, his nominees for culture minister and knowledge and economy minster stood down after negative revelations of their past emerged during confirmation hearings at the National Assembly.
This has become a pattern of sorts. Even when Lee selected his inaugural Cabinet and first presidential secretariat, some of the nominees and appointees were jeered at for being property-rich.
Still, we can’t blame Lee for his subordinates’ woes because he never promised to stand up for the underprivileged when he was campaigning for the presidency. He talked about hiring the best of the best without mentioning their moral standards.
On Monday, the ruling Grand National Party called for Lee to drop his BAI nominee, reportedly without prior notification to Cheong Wa Dae. This caused a big stir but this rebellion by the ruling party is bound to take place when his term passes its midway point. Take it as a sign of a lame-duck presidency. Still, it is not Lee’s fault because he promised to be a CEO president devoted to giving the nation another burst of economic development, not the guardianship expected of a seasoned statesman.
Why am I defending President Lee? I am not, exactly. I am defending the presidency as an institution but not actually Lee Myung-bak in person. To be fair, it is important to remember what we had voted for, when we elected Lee as our president.
A majority of voters supported Lee for his economic management skills; collectively turning a blind eye to what some claimed was reasonable doubt regarding his integrity and lack of political experience.
Although many would disagree, it is still by and large true that Lee has delivered on many of his promises. Take a look at the praise from the foreign media showered on Korea as a model for other advanced countries still struggling to recover from the two-year global financial crisis.
So we got what we bargained for and President Lee is keeping his side of the deal. So don’t blame Lee. For those who are dissatisfied with Lee’s performance and upset by a series of scandals under his watch, please make sure to check the qualifications of the candidate you vote for in the next presidential election and, if you are convinced about one, campaign for him or her. Let’s try to avoid a repeat of what we’re experiencing today from our next president.