(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on Jan. 1)

New Year challenge

The start of a New Year brings with it much excitement from anticipation about
the coming year. Out with the old and in with the new - we make resolutions and
draw up plans for the New Year, and try to erase the memories of our failures in
the previous year.
However, this New Year is unlike many other in the recent past. The world is in
the midst of an economic crisis that is yet unfolding, and South Korea has been
hit hard. We could see the economy contract in the first and second quarter of
the year, according to the latest prediction from President Lee Myung-bak. This
bleak pronouncement came shortly after the Finance Ministry's estimate of 3
percent growth for the national economy in 2009. Economic predictions that grow
dimmer virtually every few weeks are an indication of the troubled times ahead.
There will be large-scale restructuring across industries this year. More than a
million people may find themselves unemployed. The middle class will shrink as
the number of poor families grows. Youth unemployment, expected to grow worse in
2009, is particularly painful because it robs young people of hope.
The ideological rift in our society, which became especially prominent in 2008,
threatens to further divide the country. The constant struggle between the
conservatives and progressives saps the country of the energy that should be used
to propel it out of the current economic crisis. Weathering this storm will
require everyone to stay united and focused, not ideologically divided and
fractious.
It is important, as we begin the New Year, that we are forward looking. This is
not to say that we should not reflect on the past - for the past is rich with
lessons that will help us better prepare for the future - but we must not get
mired in the past.
We cannot deny what has come before. As much as this administration criticizes
the last 10 years of progressive rule - branding it "the lost decade" - it cannot
be denied that our society made progress toward fuller democracy during those
years. The Lee administration should not waste its energy on trying to erase all
that was done in that time. It should concentrate on building its own legacy,
rather than destroying its predecessors' record.
Inter-Korea relations have suffered as a result of this administration's negation
of the last 10 years' efforts. It was Lee's statement that the 1991 Basic
Agreement would form the basis of all future relations between the two countries
that got things off to a bad start. Lee disregarded the inter-Korean agreements
signed in 2000 and 2007 during the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations.
A change of government should not render agreements signed between heads of state
meaningless.
In many ways, this government seems to suffer from nostalgia - a longing for the
1960s and 1970s when the country was achieving rapid economic growth under state
guidance. Times have changed and people have changed. Korea has become a
democracy and the 13th largest economy in the world. There is more diversity, and
people enjoy full civil and political rights.
We need a forward-looking leadership to lead us into the future - one which is
filled with numerous challenges. Twenty-first century problems require 21st
century solutions, not remedies from the previous century. The country's
leadership, which has cast its mind back to the past - as even ordinary citizens
have pointed out - needs to get back to the future.
Legislators and politicians must also do better in the new year. The last few
days of 2008 saw unthinkable events taking place at the National Assembly.
Legislators knocking down a door with hammers and chisels as they tried to gain
entry to a committee room they were locked out of made front page news around the
world.
As if this were not humiliating enough, opposition legislators then occupied the
National Assembly to prevent committees from deliberating on pending bills, many
of them requiring urgent ratification. The political impasse is the result of the
incompetence of our politicians. Partisan wrangling should not get in the way of
their work - writing bills and deliberating on them.
Their miserable failure to do their job last year - the National Assembly became
utterly lawless as legislators engaged in partisan fighting - should make them
try harder than ever this year to do the job right. Even in the best of times,
bitter partisan politics drains the country of its energy. Faced with the
enormity of the economic crisis that the country faces, politicians should put
the country before anything else.
According to the Chinese zodiac, this is the Year of the Ox. An ox is an animal
that is slow but steady, a quiet, hardworking farm animal. Our leaders should
strive to take on those qualities. We need hardworking leaders who will walk the
walk. The government lost much credibility last year because it was too quick to
speak. Rather than being a steady guiding force, it constantly shifted its
positions, predictions and policies.
Once trust is lost, it is difficult to win it back. However, if the
administration tries hard, the people will reward it. Koreans have always come
together during a crisis, united in a single-minded endeavor to overcome it.
There is no doubt that the people of Korea will once again rise to the challenge
- just as they did 10 years ago during the Asian financial crisis - and beat all
odds to come out a winner. What the country needs is a visionary leadership that
can rally the people together. It is time for this administration to rise to that
challenge.
(END)