[Column] President has much to ponder

The day has finally come for President Kim Dae-Jung to receive the big prize. He will be on a plane on a trip to receive the world's most prestigious award. It is a great day indeed for the president, as well as the people of Korea. However, it is a shame that the nation is not in a particularly festive mood.

Although the government and Chong Wa Dae consider the occasion of the Nobel Peace Prize a great one for the nation, they announced self-restraint in the light of the current dampened mood of the nation. President Kim will have much to think about on his flight to Oslow. He might be awash in thought of all the advice he has received from various people concerning the current crisis and searching for a gem among them. However, there is something more urgent he should think about. He needs to honestly face himself with the question of what has caused such bitterness in public opinion and who is responsible for such deterioration.

Without the president making a careful analysis of the fundamental cause, a true solution might be impossible. President Kim has said that the Korean people had great potential and could overcome any crisis. He has often reminded how the Korean people have successfully carried out the gold collection drive to overcome the foreign currency crisis three years ago.

However, there is something that the president must not forget. Although there are similarities between three years ago and now, there is a fundamental difference. Three years ago, people still had dreams and hopes amid the difficulty. A hope for the unprecedented "people's government" coming into the office and the hope for the president who was aware the economic forces drove the people onward.

What is the situation today? As they say, "the harder they come, the harder they fall." People have lost all hope. After having given up their gold rings and tightened their belts to overcome the so-called "IMF crisis," people face the reality of the rich having become richer and the poor having become poorer, an underlying discontent in the public.

The Monopoly-like money games by the young businessmen in their 20s and 30s boggle the mind. Although investigations have been launched for the billions of won in illegal loans, there hasn't been any satisfactory conclusion to the investigations. Behind the flood of suspicions lie only the shimmering shadows of the political powerhouses. With the ruling party highest-ranking officials iterating various suspicions of corruption among political figures, many have predicted the possibility of yet another "Kim Hyun-Chul-gate."

The fact that the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) president and the highest-ranking MDP members had to come together by setting aside a special day for the MDP members to voice their concerns shows the very lack of democratization within the very party. The various suspicious dealings of the highest-ranking MDP official Kwon Roh-Kap as supposedly conveyed to the president by another Chung Dong-Young has been common knowledge by the public. It is rather comical to see the ruling party making a whole lot of commotion as if it had dropped some secret bomb on the president.

According to the words of MDP Rep. Kim Kyung-Jae, the current administration has come to power following a long and hard battle under the military dictatorship, through sweat and tears. President Kim's receiving the Nobel Peace Prize was due to his fight for democratization against dictatorship.

However, many of his democratization movement compatriots have expressed their sorrow and disbelief at President Kim accepting the post as the honorary chairman of the (late) President Park Jung-Hee Memorial Enterprise and pledging up to 20 billion won in public money for the establishment of a memorial. Although his compatriots have strongly called for his resignation as the honorary chairman, he has not budged. Calling it President Kim's self-complacency and arrogance, they have turned their backs.

Not only his old-time friends, but many of the voiceless supporters have turned their backs. A survey of public opinion during his early administration showed over 80 percent support of the people. Today, the public support stands at 30 percent. Many who had supported the president are now withdrawing their support.

The very problematic source lies in the sense of emptiness and loss. Although they have withdrawn their support for President Kim, neither could they throw their support behind the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) leader Lee Hoi-Chang. How could their sense of loss concerning political leadership be filled? This is the very question with which President Kim and the ruling MDP must come to terms.

A great Chinese man once said that the leadership, political and others, must be done with the heart, not the mind. The solution to the crisis does not come from the rational brain but from the heart empty of ploys and greed.

Euh Kyong-Taek, chief editorial writer