Is MB going proactive with Twitter?

By Kim Tae-gyu

Staff reporter

Both the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and Cheong Wa Dae seem to be putting top priority on communicating better with people in the wake of the former’s dismal showings in the local elections.

Toward that end, many are resorting to Twitter, the micro-blogging service that is widely employed by the country’s politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen as an alternative way of communicating with people.

It remains to be seen how actively President Lee Myung-bak will use this popular method of social networking in order to promote his call for better communication with the people.

Cheong Wa Dae officially tweets and several Twitter accounts have falsely claimed to have been created by President Lee but the presidential office confirmed that the 67-year-old has never created one.

In this climate, some observers contend that President Lee should tweet personally, if his priority is communicating with people. “World leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama briskly use Twitter and so do many politicians and businessmen across the world. But President Lee does not. I wonder why he is not using it,” said a source who is familiar with the issue.

Lee has expressed his interest in Twitter several times including his remarks last June when he received an honorary doctorate from George Washington University. Inadvertently, Lee revealed that he didn’t understand the Twitter world.

“A recent edition of Time magazine talks about Twitter and how this is changing the way we communicate and connect to one another. I have not joined Twitter yet, but I will certainly think about it,” Lee said in a speech at the time.

“However, asking a president to say things in 140 words or fewer is asking a bit too much. So when I do join, I will ask the people at Twitter if they can extend it to 200 words just for me.”

When contacted, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Lee Kil-ho, who is in charge of the presidential office’s online communications, said that the remarks were not a slip of the tongue but a joke.

“His jokes made the audience laugh. Although Lee does not have a personal Twitter account, he pays great attention to the official Twitter site of Cheong Wa Dae,” Lee told The Korea Times over the telephone.

“I think that it is better for the President to pay heed to the official site rather than have an individual site with others operating it.”