ed Abusing pardon power

Release of cronies hurts, not promotes, unity

With a limited number of days left in President Lee Myung-bak’s term of office, it is now the season for granting special pardons. Giving clemency to those who have served their penance is a privilege of presidential authority. It also has become customary for outgoing presidents to show mercy in their final days in office, as a gesture of unity and reconciliation.

The question is: who will he set free?

It is very disturbing in this regard to hear that President Lee is planning to include some of his most infamous cronies on his clemency list. Among the four most controversial are his elder brother, his brother-in-law, a former mentor, and a friend. Between them, they pocketed millions of dollars in bribes and are yet to serve half of their prison terms. Lee must exclude these four people from his list.

If the president pushes ahead, he will face an enormous backlash from the public as he makes his way out of the door, while leaving behind a considerable political mess for his successor to clean up.

Granting special pardons is a remnant of the monarchy and should be used extremely sparingly in a democracy. It damages the authority of judiciary branch, breaks equity in law enforcement and weakens the public’s sense of judicial punishment for crimes committed. This is why most advanced democracies strictly limit its use.

In his radio address on June 29, 2009, the president said, ``I will never forgive influence-peddling and corruptions committed by social leaders while I am in office.” Does President Lee think that three-and-a-half years’ time is the public’s maximum memory?

No less questionable is a response from President-elect Park Geun-hye, who stated during her election campaign, ``The abuse of presidential pardons is a stumbling block to Korea becoming an advanced country,” vowing to introduce special inspectors in order to prevent irregularities occurring.

A series of recent political developments, including the appointment of top judicial officials, gives the impression that there might have been a tacit agreement on the division of labor between outgoing and incoming governments: the former does everything to invite popular criticism so that the latter can start work with a reduced political burden. This, if true, could prove to be a fatal misjudgment. By condoning Lee’s unwarranted 11th-hour moves, Park will tarnish her own image of being a woman of her words, and see her begin her tenure in a state of egregious self-denial.

In this society money and power decide everything, people used to say, ``Moneyed are guiltless, and moneyless are guilty.”

Changing a president does not alter a society. If Lee ends up having his way, however, many people will be bracing themselves for five more years of more or less the same, wondering why they kept the same party in power. In a recent survey, a majority of teenagers said they are willing to live in prison for a year if it would bring them 1 billion won. Who can blame them? These cronies of President Lee made several billion won and are about to get out jail after just a few months.

Park must think long and hard about upcoming clemency.