South Korea's president-elect

[bhchao]

South Koreans yesterday elected Lee Myung Bak, former mayor of Seoul, as its new president. He is from the Grand National Party, which has its roots in the rapid economic growth, authoritarian era; the equivalent of today's KMT on Taiwan.

Voters elected Lee after years of disenfranchisement over the economy. They saw current president Roh as too focused on ideological and nationalistic rhetoric, and incompetent in economics; the same position as Chen Shui-bian today.

The era of ideology trumping pragmatism is fading in South Korea and Taiwan. Next March's presidential election in Taiwan will have two "economically friendly" candidates, Ma of course and Hsieh of the DPP. Both favor closer links with the Mainland.

And whoever is elected in 2008 as the next US president will be less intentionally divisive than President Bush has been.

As Seoul mayor, Lee Myung Bak won popularity for greening the city, enhancing the public transportation system, and restoring the Chonggye Stream which was once paved over by a concrete highway. Lee tore apart the concrete highway and made the area a popular open space for pedestrians and foot traffic. Ironically Lee used to be CEO of Hyundai. He was the one who changed the Chinese name of Seoul.

Currently Lee is being investigated on stock manipulation charges brought forward by the opposition party. As President-elect he is in the same ethical dilemma as Ma Ying-jeou, whose appeal verdict will be announced days before the March ROC presidential election.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/world/asia/20lee.html

...His detractors say that Mr. Lee lacks the character to become president of a country that, in recent years, has made great strides in shedding itself of a history of corrupt business and politics. His supporters say that Mr. Lee, the country’s first president from the corporate world, should not be judged by another era’s ethical standards and that he remains the most competent of candidates.

Rising from desperate poverty, Mr. Lee collected garbage to put himself through college. At the age of 36, he became, in a society that respects seniority, the chief executive of Hyundai Construction, a key player in South Korea’s economic development.

...Mr. Lee became a student activist and spent several months in prison after demonstrating against the normalization of diplomatic ties with Japan. He found himself on a government blacklist and unable to find work after graduation.

Instead of studying overseas like others in his predicament, Mr. Lee wrote a letter complaining to President Park Chung-hee, the military ruler at the time. Unexpectedly, a presidential aide came to see Mr. Lee who, according to his memoir, told him: “A nation becomes responsible forever for a young man if it blocks him from standing on his own two feet.”

Mr. Lee soon joined Hyundai Construction, where he rose quickly through a combination of talent, will and hard work

No one doubts Mr. Lee’s competence but many have questioned his ethics. He has admitted falsely registering two of his children as employees of a company he owned to evade taxes, and using false addresses to enroll his children in better schools. The new investigation is into whether he had any involvement in a troubled company called BBK, at the center of the stock manipulation case. He has denied any link to the company.

Many Koreans, inured to a history of corruption among their business and political leaders, seemed ready to overlook Mr. Lee’s problems. “Politicians are all thieves,” said Chung Jun-muk, 64, a retired construction worker who supported Mr. Lee. “At least Lee Myung-bak is smart. He may have gone into the den of thieves, but he won, both in business and politics.”

Mr. Lee’s friends, like the Rev. Kim Jin-hong, 66, put it more generously.

“Because the situation in South Korea is very complicated, it’s not very easy to be a perfect, ethical Christian,” said Mr. Kim, who has known Mr. Lee for 20 years. “But he’s had the spirit and conviction to lead a life that’s as Christian as possible.”