Dangerous truth and frank confession

An essay of the Liberty Korea Party’s presidential candidate Hong Joon-pyo, which was published 12 years ago, is now shaking up the election. In his autobiographical essay titled "I Want to Go Back," he wrote an episode that he and his friends provided his fellow, who was living in the same boarding house, with a pig stimulant. The fellow friend secretly crushed on a female student and wanted to be her boyfriend. Their effort went in vain, but it was a dangerous story as he could end up as an accomplice of sexual violence. The pig stimulant contains yohimbine derived from the bark of the African yohimbe tree. As a celebrity confessed his experience, pig stimulant was often appeared in the past when men talked about his tale of heroism that he was involved with a lot of women.

The late President Roh Moo-hyun also confessed "dangerous truths" in his 2002 essay "Honey, I Need Your Help." He wrote, “I yelled at my wife whenever she complained even a bit. If she strongly resisted, I raised my hand to beat her.” He also said, “When my senior asked me a secret to control my wife, I advised him to overturn the dinner table when asked to bring it into the room.” He confessed that he remarked jokingly but it was not far from the truth. In his essay, he also exposed that he went through it after he told dirty jokes to middle-aged women who passed by him and he peed on them in group on the next day.

Why people expose embarrassing personal facts in their essays? Psychologists said that people tell their dirty little secrets in their essays as they believe that a frank confession can appeal more. In particular, politicians desire their embarrassing moments to act as personal charm to voters. To be applauded, however, such confession should be made based on explicit self-reflection and sacrifice. The late politician Kim Geun-tae told the public that he received political funds without receipts in 2002. He was fined later from the court and humiliated by their colleagues with a nickname of "thoughtless Kim Geun-tae," but the public set a high value on him.

The Bareun Party’s presidential candidate Yoo Seung-min criticized Hong on Friday by saying, “It is clear that Hong has a serious mental problem to write on his involvement with sexual crime in his memoir.” The People’s Party urged Hong to resign his candidacy as he is a confessor of sexual violence and an accomplice of attempted rape. As the controversy continues, Mr. Hong tried to evade a direct answer and said that he heard the story from an acquaintance. If he faked a story as a candid confession, it could bring a bigger issue.”