Lee needs to adopt proposals from opponents
President Lee Myung-bak Monday affirmed middle-of-the-road pragmatism as the cornerstone of his governing philosophy. After the naval tragedy, he projected the impression that his administration is wavering on this stance. He said his pragmatic movement would not change. He urged his secretaries to implement policies in keeping with his philosophy.
The series of actions Lee has taken against the North after the naval incident indicated that the President was sitting on the fence of hawkish conservatism. But he re-anchored his stance on the neutral position, neither favoring the right or left.
In a symbolic gesture, he withheld resuming psychological warfare against the Kim Jong-il regime on the DMZ and sending balloons containing anti-Kim leaflets to Pyongyang. North Korea threatened to blow up the loudspeakers if the anti-North Korea broadcasting starts again and to close the Gaeseong industrial park. The South Korean military vowed to counter the attack.
It is unclear whether the delay is in line with Lee's pragmatism that triggering conflict will be of no benefit to the country.
Following the Cheonan sinking, conservatives and liberals showed a deep rift. Liberals criticized Lee's tilting toward ultra conservatism of advocating an eye-for-an-eye retaliation for the provocation. Conservatives lumped liberals as North Korea sympathizers, apparently in an election campaign strategy.
Since the second half of last year, Lee adopted a policy of paying more attention to the less-well-to-do. He does not want to deepen divisions between conservatives and liberals. In his Liberation Day speech last August, he accommodated the coexistence of liberty and equality, democratization and industrialization, growth and welfare, nation and world.
Social integration and national development will take a detour when all issues are seen from the prism of either conservatism or liberalism. The dichotomous view on key national issues has deepened social conflict. He volunteered to become the centrifugal force for harmony and integration, even at the risk of irking his backers.
His centrist approach has kept his approval rating above 50 percent, unprecedented for any of his predecessors. He named former Prime Minister Koh Gun to head a presidential committee for social integration.
He provided more micro credits for the poor, more student loans and more homes for newly-weds. Lee could implement policies to help the poor climb the social income ladder to the middle class. He needs to normalize public education and reduce private education costs.
His approach is a counterbalance to the public perception that he favors chaebol, the rich and the privileged. His outreach program is crucial in a country where differing views are seldom compromised.
Pragmatism is a movement that embraces workable ideas of opponents and rejects unworkable proposals of supporters. He needs to adopt constructive suggestions from opponents, namely liberals through an expanded communication and discard the unproductive calls from supporters, namely conservatives. It is equally indispensable for him to accommodate truly reconciliatory proposals from North Korea.
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