Absurd reality show
By Park Moo-jong
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It was not a TV comedy show. It was a low-grade reality show our “esteemed” lawmakers produced and starred in during the ongoing annual National Assembly inspection of the administration.
As expected and worried over, too, the procedure to check the government degenerated into a familiar scene of rival lawmakers engaging in a war of words and browbeating witnesses they summoned from its very start last week.
Needless to say, the highlight of the show telecast live was the war of silly questions and clever answers between two female lawmakers and a national baseball manager who appeared as a witness.
In short, the stars ― Reps. Sohn Hye-won of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Kim Su-min of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party ― only ruffled a few feathers with the poor and absurd questions they asked the witness, Sun Dong-yol.
In other words, the two could only prove their poor preparations and shallow knowledge of the sport, apparently obsessed with an idea of self-aggrandizing through the live relay of the inspection session about the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
As well-reported, Sun, a living baseball legend of Korea dubbed a “national treasure-class pitcher,” attended the Oct. 10 Assembly session for the audit of the ministry affairs over his roster selections for the 18th Jakarta Palembang Asian Games this summer.
His team cruised into the finals against Japan to win its third straight gold medal at the Asian Games, earning a coveted exemption from mandatory military service for nine players out of the total 24. In comparison, all the 20 members of the gold-winning soccer team had it good.
Sun was called to the Assembly as the first-ever sportsman-witness after a civic group opposing the military service exemption formula filed a report to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, alleging that Sun violated the anti-graft law by picking underperforming players.
Yet, no lawmaker asked Sun about the standards for the selection of players or came up with evidence for Sun's alleged unfair choices.
Now, let's look into the words the lawmakers and Sun exchanged.
Rep. Kim, 32, elected by proportional representation, asked Sun if he considered his boys' military service status when organizing the team. Sun simply replied, “No. I did not give undue favors to particular players.”
Then, Kim showed “proudly” the stats of two players, without unveiling their names, to Sun and pressed him to pick a player for his Asiad team. Sun picked “player B” who has a far better record than “player A,” (who was later confirmed) Oh Ji-hwan, shortstop for LG Twins, who was chosen for the Asian Games.
Rep. Kim claimed Sun only looked at three-month stats of the KBO players, which led him to pick Oh. Alas, the stats were last year's, not the latest. Kim brought with her old records.
I wonder if Rep. Kim could understand what Sun told her. “If you are a coach, you have to use a player who is currently in good shape.”
Adding salt to the wound were the bizarre questions by Rep. Sohn Hye-won, an outstanding expert in brand-making and publicity. Claiming she is a baseball expert herself, she took issue with Sun's annual pay of 200 million won ($180,000) as the national coach. It seems she does not know a national soccer team manager used to receive much more than Sun. And how about her income?
She also made little of Sun's team's Asiad victory, saying, “Everybody thinks winning (the gold medal) is not that difficult.” Is she right? She must be ignorant that the players endure sweat and tears for the championship.
She also pressed Sun out of nowhere to “either apologize or resign,” even if it is not Sun who should do so. It's Sohn who should apologize for her nonsensical questions.
It is no wonder the two lawmakers immediately became targets of public criticism on social media.
It is not only the two lawmakers, Reps. Sohn and Kim, who show similar attitudes in the annual Assembly audit of the administration to keep the executive branch in check.
Most lawmakers fail to ask witnesses proper questions and appear not to be attentive to their replies. In many cases, also like that of manager Sun, a witness used to spend only 30 seconds during the audit session after waiting for more than half a day.
Some were not asked any questions at all, even if they waited for a long time, helplessly due to partisan feuds over the proceedings of the session and other issues. Many lawmakers tend to assert their views and tell witnesses off, rather than asking questions. Their signature way of “handling” witnesses is scolding them as an exercise of their power.
The lawmakers should keep in mind that they are totally exposed to the public during the audit session as they are mostly relayed live through various media outlets, including YouTube.
There should be no cases like the baseball legend, Sun, in the days to come. No politician is supposed to scold sternly a sports team manager: “Why did you choose the players that way?”
The Assembly inspection should rather have focused on whether or not the privilege to exempt gold-medal winning athletes or other excellent artists from conscription is fair.
Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.