(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Dec. 20)

A year later

The Lee Myung-bak administration has called the reign of its two predecessors "10
lost years." It is adding one more.
President Lee, who was elected a year ago Friday, spent all of 2008 nullifying
most of what the previous two governments have done, good or bad, instead of
unfolding his own plans or visions.
It is natural that the shift of political power results in a reshuffle of key
governmental posts, which in turn leads to changes in policies. But the Lee
administration has been trying to change the government organization itself and
even the nation's history. If this should happen every five or 10 years, where
will the Republic of Korea go?
People elected the former construction company CEO, believing his claims that he
would not focus on ideology but revive the economy with pragmatic principles. As
we saw, however, the President has done exactly the opposite.
Ironically enough, Lee's two biggest hardships originated in the United States,
which takes overwhelming priority in his diplomatic policy. As is well known,
Lee's first big mistake was his decision to re-import controversial U.S. beef
products without sufficiently listening to public opinion, reflecting a less than
democratic way of doing things ingrained deeply in his mindset formed during his
formative years in the 1970s and '80s.
Cowered by the people power demonstrated by two months of candlelit vigils, Lee
apologized twice, only to turn doubly repressive and undemocratic once the worst
was over later. Now the government is moving to punish even demonstrators hiding
their faces with masks, which was allowed even during the three decades of
dictatorial rule by generals-turned-presidents. Germany and the United States are
also prohibiting in part veiled demonstrators, probably because of memories of
Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Are Korean demonstrators anywhere near close to them?
President Lee and his aides are attributing their dismal economic performances to
the U.S.-triggered worldwide financial turmoil.
Even before the global recession landed on Korea, the domestic economy had been
reeling under flip-flopping economic policies, cited by foreign news media as
among the most shaky economies in Asia. A notorious case in point was the
government's foreign exchange policy, in which Seoul started with artificial
depreciation of the Korean won to bolster exports, turned around to its
appreciation amid looming inflation and then came back to non-intervention, only
sharply denting its reserves while attaining nothing.
The worldwide economic crisis seems to be rather serving as an excuse for the Lee
administration to push ahead with its political, economic and social agenda
without adequately consulting the general public, let alone the opposition
parties, as shown by the ongoing railroading of various controversial bills at
the National Assembly.
Most voters cannot understand why the parliamentary ratification of the
Korea-U.S. free trade agreement should be so urgent as to paralyze the entire
Assembly proceedings while their U.S. counterparts are not giving much attention
to it, at least for the time being.
The governing camp seems to think it only has to bring minority opposition
parties and a handful of "lefties" under control to do whatever it pleases: It is
seriously mistaken.
Voters brought the conservative party back to power not because of its ideology
but out of the weariness of "no-action-talk-only" liberals. They are witnessing
the conservatives as little different in ability, and far worse in the way they
administer state affairs.
At Friday's ceremony, the ruling camp called for "harmony and hope." If that
slogan continues to remain lip service, it will help to revive the seemingly
hopeless liberals, who will then be lamenting over five lost years.
(END)