Long queue of 'polifessors'

By Park Moo-jong

"Polifessor? What do you mean?" A foreign journalist asked me during the 2002 presidential election campaign period.

"That's the coined Korean-English term, a compound of politics and professor, referring to university professors who put aside research and teaching to follow a presidential candidate in a bid to get a high government post or parliamentary seat," I explained.

"What a good Konglish word like handphone (mobile phone) or remocon (remote controller)!" the English reporter exclaimed.

Korean media "invented" the word to describe professors who flocked to the campaign camp of the then ruling party candidate Lee Hoi-chang, who suffered a surprise loss to Roh Moo-hyun.

The term has become the talk of the town anew as emeritus professor Kim Kwang-du once called the "Park Geun-hye tutor (for the economy)" joined the camp of Moon Jae-in, the liberal frontrunner on the campaign trail in the May 9 presidential election.

As many as 1,000 professors have swarmed to the Moon Jae-in headquarters to "help" him win the election with their "knowledge" in return for government posts or National Assembly membership.

Professor, derived from Latin, is a person who professes being an expert in the arts or science and a teacher of the highest academic rank.

Society respects professors because their job is to teach young people and to research to provide a better education for the pillars of the future.

Of course, they have the civic right to join the political world and utilize their academic knowledge so as to enhance the national interest.

Indeed, there are some successful cases of such polifessors, such as Nam Duck-woo, Kim Jong-in and SaKong Il, employed by the previous administrations as prime ministers and Cabinet members to complement their lack of legitimacy and tap into the expertise of the professors.

But these days, the term has become negative because they appear to be rather opportunistic, only flocking around presidential candidates in pursuit of power and thus neglecting their basic duties to teach and research.

Professors who taught us in the 1960s distanced themselves from politics with the determination to serve as a "lamp" for our society to show the direction it should take in those difficult times.

They were also cautious lest their deeds and words brought undesirable effects on their students who needed a balanced education.

Another crucial problem is that most professors entering politics and public service take a long leave of absence before returning to their schools. As a result, young scholars, mostly part-time lecturers, are unable to replace the polifessors.
The polifessors may have nothing to lose, although their political efforts do not work. The universities' administrations are apparently reluctant to take them off their payrolls as their activities in high-profile public positions could help upgrade the status of their schools.

These should be added to the list of the very "deep-rooted evils" which Moon Jae-in has "vowed" to eradicate first of all as his earliest top campaign policy.

We can take a good lesson from the disgraced Park Geun-hye government. The polifessors enjoyed their heyday. Fifteen to 20 percent of high-profile minister or vice-minister level posts were given to professors.

The so-called "Choi Soon-sil gate" that caused the fall of the nation's first female president features, among others, the involvement of professors. Of the 20 individuals the independent prosecutor indicted and put under arrest, eight are professors. If seven prosecuted without physical detention are included, they total 15 from seven universities.

It is quite natural for the next president, whoever it will be, to learn a lesson from the failure of Park who depended excessively on the professors and could not complete her tenure.

Polifessors lack the will to win. They do not fight with their backs to the wall in pushing ahead with their policies. Most of them do not throw their lot in with the regime that employs them.

Even if the regime fails, they have the option to return to the academic community.

Deregulation was one of the main policy goals of the Park administration. She used to emphasize that the removal of the cancer of regulation would make new jobs (for the young unemployed).

As everybody knows, to regulate is the power of bureaucrats. Deregulation requires the decisions of related officials first. Most professors-turned-ministers merely make a pretense of pushing through policies mainly due to their inability and lack of administrative experience.

Few will dispute the employment of professors with expertise in their respective academic fields in the Korean situation of a limited supply of highly-trained talent.

However, the latest flood of polifessors, not professors, in the Moon Jae-in camp reminds voters of Park Geun-hye's failure.

That intellectuals keep their rightful positions is itself a contribution to society. It is not an easy job for polifessors to manage both their participation in politics and academic work. Professors who want to jump into the political world should resign first.

Park Moo-jong is the Korea Times advisor. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English newspaper founded in 1950 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter for the daily. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.