Why President may not step down

By Oh Young-jin

For the magnitude of sin President Park Geun-hye has committed, stepping down would fall short of being enough. Resignation only brings a fast relief, a kind by the contraption invented by Dr. Guillotine to spare one from an agonizing pain.

Park's sin deserves the slow, painful process of justice like one for a death-row inmate, who is forced to wonder when the executioner will come: every second being stretched to three autumns in a Sisyphean regret ― for her to start all over again when it is thought to be finished.

Park is forever indebted with a spiraling compound interest scheme.

One may ask what she has done so terribly wrong.

First, Park has defiled the office of presidency beyond repairs.

Presidency is the highest institution of national leadership. When the nation is in crisis, people look to the president for strength, solace and a cause to rally around. At times of celebration, the president should use this positive energy for growth and have the rest in reserve for the future. That contract with people is now broken.

At the heart of that broken contract is trust. It is an open question how many "good" future presidents it will take to restore that broken contract with people. Perhaps more pertinent is whether it can ever be restored.

If one asks what terrible wrong she is found to be guilty of in the court of law, that question is irrelevant.

The moment she has admitted having shared her powers with the lady in question, the seal for her office got torn apart and gone with it was the sacredness.

Now a mountain of allegations has emerged. True, those allegations include rumors, half truths, lies and speculation. But the weight of those allegations is heavy enough to deprive any leader of legitimacy. The court where her sin is dealt with is one of public opinion so doesn't offer, as the ordinary court of law, the privilege of "presumed innocent until proven guilty." In this special court, one is guilty as charged.

The power of her office derives not so much from the functions she perform ― leader of the executive branch and commander in chief for military ― as from people's trust endowed through the election.

It is beyond doubt that the popular trust is withdrawn as shown in her dismal approval rating ― slightly above 10 percent and sliding. Simply put, whatever she may say, nobody would listen and one would suspect whether it is another lie. The result is that the nation becomes ungovernable under her watch.

To add insult to injury is the aura of mysticism hanging over Park's relationship with the trouble-making lady, the daughter of a cult leader who some claim that had Park under his evil spell since the 1970s. Some dub the situation as "shamanistic" but, all said and done, it would boil down to a simple influence-peddling case over a woman thrown into solitude, who happened to become president. People complain that Park singlehandedly reduced our nation to an undeveloped third-world country.

Park can say that she has been too lonely with few to turn to.

That was why she got "bewitched" by her friend, let her on state secrets and allowed her to run part of the government as if it were her private business. Park's top officials ― presidential secretaries and ministers ― were mobilized to extort from chaebol so as to enrich her and finance her daughter's horse-riding lessons in Germany.

Then, Ewha Womans University has been dragged into the cauldron of disgrace by a disclosure that the daughter gained illegal admissions into the school and professors acted subserviently to the 20-year-old. Just imagine frustration and anger by many aspiring collegians, who would be willing to give their right arms for their toe in that school.

The allegations should be proven true in the court of law because they ― Park's lady friend, her daughter and her associates ― are private citizens. But for Park, the holder of the institution, such a time-consuming process is a luxury.

Then, the breach of trust also is manifested by the people's feelings.

Park has made people feel confused that a president they had elected could be different from one that governed them. This confusion puts the nation into a collective case of schizophrenia that the friend of Park's is behind everything that goes wrong at every level. The angry public sentiment can be peeked at through an online fund-raising drive to pay for legal defenses for one who rammed heavy equipment into the Supreme Prosecutor's building Tuesday morning. The driver claimed that he wanted to kill Park's friend as she wished when she presented herself at the prosecution.

This helplessness is permeating into our national consciousness. That widens a gulf of alienation separating Park from people. That sense of alienation and hopelessness fuels the popular belief ― much like that that led to Brexit and backs Donald Trump ― that the society is rigged against them.

Even if she may not reverse this collective sense of despair, Park has to stay on as warning for those who are eager for power. The President is not just the job of glory but one of responsibility. The contenders should be aware they take the risk of repeating Park's fate.

Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' chief editorial writer. Contact him at foolsdie5@ktimes.com or foolsdie@gmail.com.