Software entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo is in the process of securing supporters who can lend assistance if he opts to run for president, an advisor said Wednesday.
"Ahn is meeting a lot of people, exchanging views with those he meets, and through such efforts forming ties that could assist him (down the line)," said Keum Tae-sup, a lawyer who has close ties with the 50-year-old dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University (SNU).
He claimed in a radio talk show aired earlier in the day, that many people have expressed a desire to join Ahn and stressed that if the dean makes up his mind to compete for the country's top elected office, he will be ready to fulfill his role.
On when the dean will make up his mind, Keum said there is no way to give a set date, although he did point out that Ahn wants to take such an important step after he has fully communicated his views and earned the understanding of the people.
He added that Ahn, who founded AhnLab, the country's largest computer anti-virus company, plans to follow his own schedule in a reasonable manner.
The lawyer, in addition, said that Ahn is not the kind of person to be easily swayed by changes in public opinion when making decisions.
Ahn is the only contender able to compete on an even keel with Rep. Park Geun-hye, the presidential hopeful for the ruling Saenuri Party, but the latest polls show him trailing the five-term lawmaker by a small margin.
The advisor, meanwhile, said because Ahn has to make known his views on policies and undergo public screening, any decision on running for president will not be put off much longer.
This remark comes as some political watchers have urged Ahn, who has never held a public office, to make known his intentions as soon as possible.
Such a move they claimed could help relieve political uncertainties and give the public a chance to check Ahn's past and see if he is suited to lead the country.
Related to checking Ahn's past, a professor at SNU told Yonhap News Agency that he resigned from a committee set up to see if the dean and his wife Kim Mi-kyung were eligible for life-long tenure at the university because he did not want to waste his time acting as a rubber stamp. Kim was appointed as a full professor along with her husband in 2011. Both Ahn and Kim taught at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, before coming to SNU.
"In order for a person to get tenure he or she must have carried out extensive research and published papers, but both Ahn and his wife did not meet this requirement," the professor, who declined to be identified, said.
"It seems political considerations were taken to give the appointments instead of basing decisions on academic knowhow," he claimed. School sources admitted that Kim was given tenure after a rare second meeting of the committee that was barely approved in a vote of committee members.
On the questions raised, sources close to Ahn said if there is any controversy, it is up to SNU to make the explanation. Ahn has said he was invited by the school to teach, and that Kim as an expert in pathology was picked because she had earned diverse experience in the past and during her studies abroad. (Yonhap)