[Editorial] Lee Hoi-chang Seeks Help from Old Politicians

While former Grand National Party Chairman Lee Hoi-chang mulled over whether to join the presidential race, his special advisor, Lee Heung-joo, told reporters, “If he decides to run, he will probably seek help from ‘fresh’ faces.” However, the people, who have been mentioned as possible aides to Lee since Lee bolted from the GNP and declared his presidential bid, are not fresh faces at all.

In fact, the list includes Seo Sang-mok, Choi Don-ung and Kang Sam-jae, who were chiefly responsible for three major slush-fund scandals involving the general elections in 1996 and the presidential elections in 1997 and 2002. All three cases were crimes that made politics corrupt and shook the foundations of the state administration. Moreover, the two cases in 1997 and 2002 are directly related to raising illegal campaign funds for Lee.

Seo was one of the three masterminds behind the 1997 GNP slush-fund scandal. In collaboration with Lee’s brother, Lee Hoi-seong, and Lee Seok-hee, then commissioner of the National Tax Service (NTS), Seo raised illicit campaign funds of 16.63 billion won from 23 conglomerates, including Hyundai, SK and Daewoo. This has been one of the most talked about illegal fundraising scandals in which the NTS abused its authority.

Choi is the very person who spearheaded the GNP’s illegal fundraising during the 2002 presidential election. The GNP carried 50 billion won in cash that it collected from large companies in a 2.5 ton truck and a sedan. Choi, who was then chairman of the GNP`s financial committee, was even stripped of his parliamentary seat after being convicted of demanding 10 billion won from SK Group in person. When Lee declared his presidential bid, Choi said, “I have no choice but to help him since we are old school friends.”

Kang, who served the general secretary of the Democratic Liberal Party, retired from politics after being sentenced to a four-year prison term and a fine of 73.1 billion won on charges of leaking 119.7 billion won from the budget of the Agency for National Security Planning for the party`s local election campaign in 1995 and the general elections in 1996. Although he was later acquitted by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the money was likely from the balance of former President Kim Young-sam’s presidential campaign funds, he is not innocent of mobilizing this astronomical amount of money in those elections.

Almost everyone who gathers around Lee, who recently declared his third presidential bid, remind us of “old politics” and its associated corruption. It arouses curiosity on how they dare to ask the people for their votes.