Why not a woman?

By Kim See-bong

First of all, this year we may owe our presidency to a woman. Since the founding of the Republic of Korea, all the presidents we've had were male. The male presidents so far contributed a lot to the economic development of our country. We owe them a lot in reaching where we are ― the wealthiest ever in our 5,000-year history.

However, all their efforts have been concentrated on the economic side and allowed the people to get over the “barley pass” and achieved the miracle of the Han River. As a result, the entire nation is now head over heels in enjoying the outcome of development, completely forgetting the agony of poverty which was our inescapable reality only a few decades ago.

The excessively rapid development so far has brought about so many undesirable side effects They include the bad habit of ``hurry, hurry," the disregarding of legitimate procedure and consequent bribery and corruption in every part of society. They think it is natural to utilize whatever means, fair or foul, within their reach to expedite their business.

Consequently, we rarely see clean hands among our politicians. They fail to reach the standard of the people they are serving. Most of them are produced impromptu without history. So we are lacking in good leadership deserving of people's respect and unable of raising hope in people's mind. They are all Machiavellian politicians, not true leaders.

Nearing the season of the presidential election, I'd like to ask all candidates if they know what it takes to become president of a country besides their simple desire for political power and that the power entails immeasurable responsibility.

The current corruption within the upper echelon, mostly politicians, down to the lowest level, has contaminated every part of our society. Injustice and corruption for those in power and despair for the lowest pervade our society.

On the other hand, at this juncture we have to put our ears down to the ground and hear the groaning sound of the Earth. It is suffering under incessant construction excavating every part of the land in the name of development. The Earth would say `` I am tired. Let me take a rest." But none of our leaders listen, blinded by their egotistic personal ambition to achieve more for display, though construction after construction only drains the land of the space for us to breathe.

Under this development-motivated construction drive, our land has been exhausted. This compares well with the people who are bored of their politicians who say one thing here and act in another way elsewhere.

In fact, all the skyscrapers that threaten to pierce into the sky in Seoul and the economic figures that flare up our economic achievements are the high costs we have to pay for all the losses we suffered so far in morals, ethics and tradition. The loss will remain a scar deep in our national ethos. And the recovery will take much longer than we can imagine.

All things considered, now is the time when we have to take things easy and our time to foresee what is in store ahead, stopping more construction and getting away from the inferiority complex of "Only victors get to tell."

Our excitement has to be appeased by the fine hand of motherhood. The land and the people are both fed up with males as our president.

If so, why not a woman as our president?

The writer is principal of Polyglot Day School in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province. His email address is glsacademy@dreamwiz.com.