By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak should sharpen political rather than economic leadership to unite the divided people, a conservative civic group said.
The New Right Foundation held a forum in central Seoul Wednesday under the title of ``Lee government's crisis and chance.'' The participants claimed the crisis has come from the combination of the government's ideological confusion and a lack of political, democratic leadership.
Ahn Byeong-jin, head of the foundation and Seoul National University professor emeritus, said that President Lee has lost leadership as he did not understand that a President's leadership is political, not economic.
``He failed to coordinate the interests of various political groups. Lee should strengthen his political leadership by forming partnerships with the ruling Grand National Party and cooperating with the opposition parties,'' Ahn said.
Novelist and columnist Bok Geo-il said that the Lee Government can get over this crisis when the President abandons his idea of ``pragmatism'' and instead embraces liberalism and market economy.
``The government has emphasized pragmatism, as if it were a cure for ideological conflicts. But pragmatism is a value subordinate to ideology and cannot deal with social structure and management. The President's leadership should be based on liberalism, not pragmatism,'' Bok said.
The columnist said Lee, who was an entrepreneur, and his aides do not have a deep understanding of ideology. ``That's why they experienced a public backlash after promoting policies that ran counter to capitalism, such as lowering cell phone fees and controlling prices of daily necessities,'' Bok said.
Park Hyo-jong, head of the Citizens United for Better Society and SNU professor, called for a change from progressive civic groups, saying these groups, organized in the 1980s to protest the dictatorial government, are still haunted by the dichotomy of democracy and anti-democracy, unification and anti-unification, and capital and labor.
``Left-leaning civic groups have contributed to furthering democracy in Korea. But they are getting politicized and pursuing power. Some of them are obsessed with a fundamentalist opposition to market opening, which is an anachronism,'' Park said.
He urged those groups to abandon nationalism and pay attention to human rights and freedom in a broader sense.