Lawmaker's ignorance stuns citizens

Seoul superintendent Cho Hee-yeon, left and Lee Eun-jae / Screen capture from YouTube

By Lee Han-soo

Citizens were amazed on Thursday when a video of ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker Lee Eun-jae criticizing Seoul superintendent Cho Hee-yeon for buying Microsoft Office from Microsoft Korea was made public.

Only Microsoft sells and licenses Microsoft Office, a suite of applications, servers and services.

Lee called for Cho’s resignation, arguing that Cho had violated the law by not allowing official bidding for school office software.

Cho, amazed at the lawmaker’s claim, tried to explain that MS Office was available only from Microsoft.

But Lee, who seemed not to know that MS office was an abbreviation for Microsoft Office, kept criticizing Cho for giving a private contract to Microsoft.

Lee even claimed that Cho had violated antitrust policy and should be charged.

Cho pointed out that by buying MS Office in bulk, Seoul Education Office saved 2.9 billion won ($2.6 million).

But whenever Cho tried to explain that only Microsoft sold MS Office, Lee criticized him and told him to stop avoiding the topic.

“You told the committee that you didn’t make an official bid and gave a private contract to a single company,” said Lee even after her time on the stand was up.

“How dare you lie in a place like this? You should resign from office.”

Citizens were amazed at Lee’s ignorance, especially as she had studied at Claremont McKeena College in California, where MS Office is mandatory.

After the video went viral, Lee tried to explain herself at a press conference on Sunday.

“I feel dejected,” she said. I have used computers since my study in the U.S. in 1983.

“I know what Microsoft Office is.”

She claimed Cho should have allowed a bid from Hancom ― Korea’s second-most used office suite ― or makers of other office suites.

Lee apologized for raising her voice at the hearing.

But she said the video of her shouting was during a parliamentary inspection, and she was concerned that details could go public.

Netizens have criticized the apology and comment.

“Isn’t it obvious that a parliamentary inspection of the administration hearing is made public?” a netizen commented.

“We have the right to know what is going on because we pay taxes.”