New Power Elite

On the same wavelength with the President-elect

Chung Doo-un, a first-time lawmaker of the Grand National Party, is one of President-elect Lee Myung-bak's close confidants as he played a major role in Lee's election to the position of Korea's new Chief Executive.
Chung may emerge as one of the new power elite of the Lee Myung-bak government. He has reportedly been playing a part in drawing up the basic policies of the new government and selecting Lee's transition team and cabinet line-up.
The representative of the 17th parliament, hailing from the Seodaemun electoral district in Seoul, has long been on good terms with Lee. Chung served as political vice mayor for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, headed by Lee. Chung, adviser of the President-elect's secretariat, held such major positions as the chief of the strategy planning team of the Grand National Party Electioneering Committee.
Chung is a man of humane character. He once organized a "hof (draft beer) house"with the residents of a neighborhood in his electoral district to raise funds to help a child suffering from a heart disease. The child eventually died later and Chung released an album titled "Memory Pop Music Travel with Chung Doo-un"and donated all of the proceeds to a fund to help children suffering from heart diseases.
He has a 30 cm-long scar on his right leg that he sustained while trying to save a drunk pedestrian from a back wheel of a bus on his way back from his office. He did the good deed while serving as Seoul vice mayor, but it was not immediately divulged due to his "tight-lipped"and humble personality.
Chung, who passed the higher administrative officials test, has been working in officialdom for more than 20 years, assuming such ranking positions as the secretary to the prime minister. One of the principles on reform he has cherished as his precious lesson during his career as a public official is "sticking to the law."His rationale is to adopt a systematic approach in solving any problem. In other words, he claims that the most important thing is for people's willingness to work voluntarily and not to be coerced. As companies need physical infrastructure such as roads and ports to produce and distribute their products, he says society likewise has to have a spiritual infrastructure because each social sector operates better without coercion and orders due to such invisible social infrastructure as reliability and trust.
Chung believes that a reliable, trustworthy society respects the law and its principles. If constituents of an organization abide by its principles, that organization could bring prosperity and happiness to all, but if it is not the case, it could bring damage and misfortune. So a society can evolve into a healthy one based on its constituents'voluntary participation and strong trust when it is trying to reform itself in accordance to its laws and principles, he observes. nw

Chung Doo-un, a close confidant of President Lee.