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[Opinion] `Why Do You Want to Be President?`

Posted December. 06, 2001 09:17,   

한국어

`Why do you want to be president?`

I want to ask this question to everyone who wants to run for president in the next campaign. They may ask why I ask such questions, but they are feigning ignorance. The more people ask the reason for wanting to become the president, the better it is. We have not sufficiently pursued this question with the countless presidential candidates and those who actually became the president. They may say, `Everyone knows why, so what`s the use in asking again?` But that is not true. Think about the difficult situation in which Korean society find itself now. One of the reasons why things got so bad has to do with not having interrogated more carefully why the man wanted to become president. Things got worse because the people did not make clear the weight of the responsibility of the Presidency. In other words, `Inspection of the President` was inadequate. If the message about the seriousness of the responsibility got through loud and clear, the administration may have had a different attitude and made fewer mistakes.

Every election, we frankly avoided asking hard questions because we assumed that someone running for the president would naturally be respectable and qualified in every way, thus eliminating any need to inquire further. Public support becomes simple and almost blind. Careful scrutiny of the candidates and president naturally falls apart. Although the media and press asked useful questions, it is difficult to say whether they pushed the candidates enough and adequately drew out the information that the voters wanted to hear.

People in politics have a particular instinct that other do not. It is always awe-inspiring when one sees that in the midst of the regular daily life, a politician has taken every step to prepare for the next election unbeknownst to anyone. Although politicians have a hard time planning policy a year or two in advance, their foresight in counting down the days until the next election is amazing. The presidential candidates have waited five years now. No wonder they are in such anxiety.

With one year or so left before the next presidential election, the domestic situation within the ruling party is very chaotic. 7, 8 individuals are directly expressing their intention to run for the presidency. One wonders how they will do, seeing what happened in the last elections. Other parties are the same. Once the campaigning begins, independents could enter the race as well. Anyone who has no reason to be disqualified can run for the presidency, but the fact that there are so many who want to leaves a bad taste in one`s mouth. The office of the president is not a popularity thing for sure. I can`t tell whether they are just giving it a try without concern about failing, or the value of the office has fallen so drastically. The situation is certainly dismal when all sorts of characters enter the fray with the attitude, `who says I can`t run for office?` If things get this way at a time when the people are losing confidence in politics, the presidential elections will be just a joke and Korean politics will decrease that much more in stature. This is why I insist on closely interrogating the candidates and the president.

The most difficult and feared scrutiny is scrutiny of oneself. There is no one who knows one`s own strengths better than oneself. The candidates will have to consider honestly whether they can win in the preliminaries. You can`t win by hurriedly gathering support and pushing your weight around. It would also be a mistake and great insult to the people if they think that they can use their name to make deals within the parties and form alliances and call for solidarity to win. That is truly unforgivable and worthy of a conman. For the most part, those who wish to run for office usually use their names. But that does not guarantee that the individual has the capacity to break new ground and carry out an innovative government of the nation. We have verified with our eyes the emptiness of those Presidents whose pro-democracy rhetoric had appeal and we have experienced enough that vacuity in our lives. We went through that pain and confusion because we failed to scrutinize closely. The era when lofty rhetoric about national vision and slogans without merit can capture the people has passed. The voters of today are different from the voters of yesterday. They are `political consumers` who know how to pick out bad quality goods with just one look. Let the politicians do their own thorough scrutinizing. If they decide to run even after that, I will ask again, `Why do you want to be president?`

Choi Kyu-Chul (Editorial Staff Chief)



Choi Kyu-Chul kihang@donga.com