By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The public's high expectations of President Lee Myung-bak reinvigorating the economy have led to ``disappointment'' with him, a professor said Thursday.
In a debate to assess the Lee government's first 100 days, Professor Yoo Jong-il of the Korea Development Institute's (KDI) School of Public Policy and Management said, ``People expected that the economy-savvy President would bring an economic situation better than that of the previous left-leaning government which executed anti-market, business policies.'' The debate was organized by the main opposition United Democratic Party's think-tank.
But the conservative government's deficient performance in addressing the economy elevated public anxiety, resulting in clouded views on economic growth.
He also criticized Lee's pragmatism claiming that the idea belongs to methodology rather than a value system, highlighting the Lee administration's shortcomings in economic philosophy.
Yoo claimed the government had displayed many leadership limitations over the last three months going against public wishes for the former successful CEO to boost the economy with his strong driving force.
``He has hired unqualified people or those with dubious wealth, which has made the public doubt his integrity,'' the professor said. ``Additionally, citizens realized that he showed inappropriate leadership while lopsidedly pushing state affairs.''
Regarding Lee's business-friendly policy, he pointed out that they are different from a market-friendly plan and could distort the market.
``In markets, economic players including consumers, laborers and investors as well as corporations exist and markets can efficiently work when all the players are kept in balance,'' he said.
Paik Hak-soon, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute, took a cautious stance when assessing the Lee government's performance, saying 100 days was not long enough to gauge whether the government was bad or good but underlined that ``initial conducts'' tend to determine a future direction.
He, first of all, pointed out that President Lee discussed some important issues during a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush last month.
Even though the two leaders promised cooperation in parliamentary approval of a free trade agreement, he said the issue should be dealt with by parliaments, not administrations.
As for Lee's North Korea policy ``Vision 3000,'' he claimed its goal was similar to the previous ``Sunshine Policy'' in engaging with Pyongyang.
``As former President Kim Dae-jung observed, the conservative President's policy seeks a similar aim ― building an inter-Korean community through economic cooperation.''
Lee who vowed to take a tougher line towards the North pledged to help raise North Korea's per capita income to $3,000 in 10 years after the Stalinist state abandons its nuclear weapons program.
President Lee enjoyed immense popularity, more than 50 percent, when he took office in February but his support has plunged to the 20 percent range, according to surveys.