By Hahn Seok-heon
Korea is a society of cronyism ― regional cronyism, school cronyism and blood cronyism, or nepotism. I think the reason can be tracked back to its historical farming culture.
In the farming society, villagers ― living together for hundreds of years and from generation to generation centering on narrow land and calling one another as brother and sister ― developed a morbid love of their native place, while alienating other regions and sometimes rejecting other people because of their ``closed minds" formed by such isolation.
First, in ``regional cronyism," its promoters usually induce regional loyalty and form a power group. In most successful cases, they turn out a president and reward regional people for their backing. The key promoters themselves occupy important positions, and after that, mostly go to jail for all kinds of corruption.
Today, the biggest problem in Korean politics is that people who represent only a specific region have continued to occupy the presidential office. That region comparatively has a larger population, is wealthier than other regions, allowing its presidential contenders to preoccupy more resources and voters. ``Look,” its core members say, ``a general trend is such. What would you do about it? “
What happened to the rest of Koreans as a result of this? Well, the nation is divided by south and north, east and west, and is experiencing extreme polarization in income and wealth since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Even more problematic is our future. Although the world is running toward greater integration, Korea is increasingly divided and a politician riding high on regionalism is most likely to be the next president.
Second, there is ``school cronyism," too, If you do want to rise to a high position quickly, go to one of the top-three universities first. There are power groups surrounding Seoul National, Korea and Yonsei universities. What's a first class college anyway? Well, that is the place excellent test-takers gather? What could such students do later if all they know is how to take exams with success? They focus only on themselves.
Korea must focus on providing a well-balanced education. What is a well-balanced education, then? Well, in addition to focusing on school achievements, well-balanced education also emphasizes volunteer services, social development, and most of all, love of their country and society.
Some parents still maintain, ``Let's decide the winner quickly with one exam," as well-balanced man is not made in a day. But we should reorganize school class first based on the following criterion: academic achievements (30percent), social services (20 percent), morality (10 percent),cooperation (10 percent), responsibility (10percents), judgment (10 percent) and creativity (10 points).
Well-balanced education is not all about exams; four one-hour classes a day are enough, and the remaining four hours should be given to unsupervised learning with a variety of programs.
When you apply for college, you can then use the combined points of elementary, middle and high school to gain admission to the college. If the nation is equipped with well-managed school records like these, people don't even need to take any exam in, let's say, looking for a job or being a public official… etc.
Lastly, when we say ``blood cronyism," what comes to our mind first of all is chaebol. The family-controlled conglomerates evoke a strong image of greed. Chaebol passes down from generation to generation and worse yet, doesn't even hesitate to practice an illegal transfer of wealth and management control.
Chaebol's problem has become even more serious these days, as they create fewer and fewer jobs, while trying to expand its corporate empires through all kinds of irregular means.
The result came first in the form of the so-called ``IMF crisis” 15 years ago, which has since aggravated economic and social polarization.
In Korea, power is money, and money is power ― far more so than anywhere else in the world. As long as this ``law”lives on, chaebol's problem will remain unsolved forever.
It is long past time for chaebol to transform themselves to specialized corporations managed by professional managers ― or for the government to enforce such changes.
The problem of cronyism ― regionalism, school and family ― has deprived us of equal opportunities or will to achieve something based on fair competition. So, instead of repeating, ``Let’s not fight among ourselves in this age of global competition,” we must say, ``We have to create a more just and fair society based on equal opportunity and even playing field.”
It will decide our survival despite, rather because of, the increasingly globalizing competition.
The writer is a Seoul resident. His email address is koreahahn@hanmail.net.