Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' publisher and president. He began to work at The Korea Times in 1988 as a sports writer. Then, he worked as a reporter and later as editor at the City Desk, Business Desk and Politics Desk. He worked as chief editorial writer before taking the current position. He has a keen interest in politics as well as defense affairs.
Moon Jae-in the fundamentalist
President Moon Jae-in Korea Times
By Oh Young-jin
By Oh Young-jin
During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, there was the “Taliban incident” that eventually showed then Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan the door, with his rival Lee Jong-seok rising to dominate policies over North Korea and foreign affairs.
The incident was triggered by a whistleblower who disclosed that a group of foreign ministry officials had dubbed inner-circle members of the Roh administration ― and by extension the President ― Muslim fundamentalists for their alleged anti-U.S. stance and nationalist tendency.
The aides consisted of those belonging to the “386 generation,” who were born in the 1960s, aged in their 30s to early 40s and attended college in the 1980s at the height of the civic uprising to fight successive dictatorships, ultimately forcing army general-turned-president Chun Doo-hwan to accept a popular presidential vote.
For the Taliban incident, a major reshuffle hit the foreign ministry, sending the careers of some bright young diplomats down the gutter.
With the benefit of hindsight, 10-plus years on, they called the wrong person Taliban when they referred to Roh because the late president was no fundamentalist, rather he was a pragmatist.
One clarification is that Taliban sounded a lot worse then than now because at that time it was when George W. Bush was leading a war on terror, with the Afghanistan indigenous Muslim forces being targeted for extermination for providing a haven to Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on the U.S.
What seems to be perpetual war in Afghanistan ― together with tons of reports ― has smoothed much of the rough edges about the public's initial concept of the Taliban being evil. But what proved those “rogue” officials wrong is Roh's pursuit of the free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.
Then, FTA was never a progressive agenda but Roh pushed it at the risk of alienating his supporters. He was completely alienated after he used Kim Hyun-chong as trade minister to make the FTA settlement and pave the way for the signing during the following conservative Lee Myung-bak government.
Roh's supporters, especially core groups of unions and farmers, staged protests against his trade deal that focused on opening markets in sensitive areas such as agriculture. Roh doubly angered his supporters when he complied with Bush's request to send troops to the Middle East.
His backers called them acts of betrayal, withdrew their support and left Roh with a dismal popularity rating toward the end of his tenure, to the point that just before his departure from his office, he pensively observed his greatest legacy was the fact he became president, overcoming humble beginnings and an odds-against road to the job.
Roh's bipartisan acts contrast with one in the U.S. later. It involved Barack Obama's “not red states or blue states but United States” pitch for the presidency but the first black American president failed to deliver during his eight years in office.
That is why people still remember Roh in quite a different manner than other presidents.
So who was the real “Taliban”?
At least from the way he is handling himself and in a sense that allows no compromise, it is our incumbent president. Moon Jae-in was Roh's friend and served as his chief of staff.
He kept a low profile and was off the radar as he performed his role of aide to the truest meaning of the job description by politico Park Jie-won, the most trusted aide of late President Kim Dae-jung, who said, “Those serving a president shouldn't have a mouth,” cautioning against being talkative.
But what qualifies Moon as fundamentalist and will most likely remain so for the rest of his time at Cheong Wa Dae?
History counts. At the start of his presidency, he repeatedly made clear that he would be picking up where his friend left off. What he didn't say was he had a case study to learn firsthand from Roh's failures.
Therefore, his cardinal rule is never to alienate his support base under any circumstances. That is why he is sticking to his campaign promise to liquidate all ills from the past. That is the reason however hard he will be criticized, Moon will never give up his income-based growth policy, a distribution policy to which minimum wage rises are one part. In a way, he will likely be bolder in pursuit of these goals and harder in efforts to implement them.
Besides, Moon now has been more convinced that there should be no retreat on his goals because of the success he has gained in his North Korea policy. Skeptics had scorned him for his vow to put Seoul at the wheel over the big powers in dealing with the North, his first priority being peace.
At least, few would dispute Moon has delivered part of his promise, with the recent inter-Korean border meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un being an unmistakable sign of peace.
What can we expect of our Taliban president? One is about his dealing with Japan's embargo on sensitive materials for Korea. He will never deviate from his hardline stance. Thanks to it, he is regaining popularity, with the nation rallying around his battle cry against the former colonial invader.
Here is advice for his detractors, just in case they don't get it: Don't underestimate Moon for his soft eyes and polite speech. It hides a steel will and unwavering sense of righteousness.
Oh Young-jin (
foolsdie@gmail.com, foolsdie5@koreatimes.co.kr
) is the digital managing editor of The Korea Times.