Let the bankers bank

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Michael Breen

Let the bankers bank

Posted : 2010-10-28 17:48

Updated : 2010-10-28 17:48

By Michael Breen

When members of the Korean parliament embarrass Cabinet ministers and senior government bureaucrats, as they get to do regularly, they perform one of the vital services that make this country a democracy. But they have to get it right.

Take lawmaker Yoo Il-ho, for example. When he questioned the wisdom of the Korea Investment Corp. (KIC), the government’s investment body, for holding on to its $2 billion stake in Merrill Lynch after its value had halved, he appeared to have a point. We can’t have government agencies losing billions of dollars.

But consider: the KIC people earned the country an accumulated return of 7 percent over the last four years, making $2.3 billion in profit, which was not bad during a global financial crisis. The reason they’re not selling that Merrill Lynch stake and turning a $1 billion paper loss into an actual loss, is that it has been converted into shares of Bank of America and KIC anticipates a turnaround. This judgment is as foolish as Yoo suggests.

But he should know this. Before the National Assembly, he was an economist at the Korea Development Institute. So what’s he up to?

At another Assembly audit, another legislator, Hong Jung-wook, pointed out that when the Han River made an appearance in the drama ``Lost,” the filmmakers used a small stream with a titchy bridge instead of the real thing. That’s not all. In another scene a Korean fisherman was wearing a Vietnamese straw hat. In ``24,” a brutal torture scene happens in Seoul, and in ``CSI” there’s a Korean-American setting with a North Korean song in the background.

``It is difficult to overlook the image of Korea being depicted on American TV dramas,” Hong said. ``Even though we are hosting the G20 summit and no matter how many nuclear reactors we export, foreigners will continue to have an inaccurate view of Korea given the speed with which popular culture is disseminated these days.”

But what he is on about? Does he not know that movies are made for entertainment? Even real-life biographical movies, like the recent one about the founder of Facebook, have facts changed to make them more exciting. Korea’s appearance in these dramas is good. Getting the facts right matters only for viewer believability, not for national promotion.

But Rep. Hong should know this. He is the son of the famous actor Hong Gyeong-il, better known by his stage name Namkoong Won. So what is he up to?

At yet another audit, Rep. Lee Sang-kwon of the Assembly’s Knowledge Economy Committee came out with the revelation that 64.1 percent of North Americans, according to a recent survey, don’t know Samsung is Korean. They think it’s either Japanese or Chinese, or haven’t even heard of it at all. In the same survey, 46.4 percent of Europeans got it wrong.

His point? ``The government and businesses should come up with measures to expand global awareness of Korean companies.”

Now, Rep. Lee was a prosecutor and lawyer. He must be a smart fellow, smart enough to know that the leading Korean companies are quite happy to be mistaken as Japanese. They will catch onto the Korean brand when the Korean brand catches up with them. Force them now and you might damage their profits for a nationalistic purpose that damages the national interest.

The interesting common thread here is that these three gentlemen are all members of the ruling Grand National Party. While their broad inclination is to support the government of President Lee Myung-bak, here they are, not exactly being destructive, but second-guessing and issuing instructions to government agencies in a way that scores easy PR points in the local media.

Whether they’re indirectly suggesting themselves as better ministerial candidates or simply wishing to be better known to the public, they would do well to get on the right side of issues to avoid looking stupid.

Michael Breen is an author, former foreign correspondent and the chairman of Insight Communications, a public relations consulting company. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.