[Editorial] Who Should Root out Weeds?

On Parents` Day, President Roh Moo-hyun sent an e-mail letter to 5 million South Koreans. In the letter, he defined four types of "Weedy Politicians," which is arousing another fierce political debate in this nation. We understand his sincere emphasis on the importance of the power of citizens and the attitude of parents and farmers. Nonetheless, we cannot help pointing out some inherent problems lying in his "Advocacy for Elimination of Weeds."

First, the standards he proposes lack objectivity. Individuals have different criteria for classifying unnecessary politicians dubbed as Weedy Politicians. For example, President Roh refers to the following features as characteristics of Weedy Politicians: greed, collective interest, anti-reform sentiment, manipulation of regionalism and political use of national security. Some, however, may define Weedy Politicians based on the following features: arrogance and prejudice, egotism and self-complacence, incompetence and lack of opinion, and imprudence and dishonesty. The final decision on politicians, whether rooting out or electing them, lies in the sole discretion of the South Korean voters.

Second, President Roh himself is a politician and, therefore, is not in a position to make a life-and-death judgment on other politicians. President Roh might counter-argue that he is entitled to discuss and propose some political criteria. Of course, he is. When it comes to Advocacy for Elimination of Weeds, he is not. As told just before, it is a life-and-death judgment. Under the current law, the President can retain a party membership. Thus, he is not immune from political misunderstanding. In addition, his own ruling party is engulfed in an intra-party feud over the hegemony regarding the establishment of a new party. Many people suspect that the advocacy theory represents what he wishes of the new party.

Third, a successful political reform should come before elimination of some politicians. Arguing for the latter, without carrying out the former, does not make sense at all. To root out weeds, we first have to culture the soil in which no weeds can live thereon any longer. One-time rooting-out will not root them out for good; the soil will be covered with weeds again.

Fourth, quite a number of people suspect that President Roh`s advocacy theory is targeted at the general election scheduled for next year. In other words, people believe the theory is another example of Roh Moo-hyun-esque publicity strategy. The elimination theory reminds South Koreans of the negative campaigning, which was waged by some civic groups in the last 2000 election, against a certain group of politicians.

It would have been better off if President Roh had said, "Let`s sort out the best seeds," instead of arguing for weeds-elimination. A real leadership shines when the leader envisions a positive and constructive way to his or her people. In this respect, proposing standards for selecting quality seeds would have been better for the whole nation.