Hope for President to Practice
Politics of Companionship

Looking at the new President at his inaugural

"On the road to national advancement, lets open it together,"President Lee's inauguration address's title said. In a 35-minute-long speech, the new President didn't forget to show his warm and quite smile all the time and unveiled his plans and tough determination that he will lead the country on the road to be an advanced nation in the world during his term of office and this year being the initial year for the country's advancement plan.
Despair and dejection sometimes hung over the entire country along with pain, but President Lee Myung-bak appeared to take a positive view of the nation's 60 decades of history, and confident that he can achieve his dream to upgrade Korea to be counted among an envious group of advanced nations in the world during his five-year term. He unfurled to the nation and the world during his inaugural, confidence, responsibility and the sense of history and intention in very clear terms.
His promises to open the future of the country's tomorrow by actively engaging in solving current issues to upgrade Korea's image in the international society in tandem with the nation's growing power and his more than expected inclination to embrace North Korea was felt to be the points that made the people very proud of their new chief executive.
The new government is to be called the Lee Myung-bak government, not inheriting his predecessors naming their administrations with some catchphrases such as civilian, people's and participatory governments.
President Lee has decided to name his administration after his name undauntedly, a wishful progress.
The key of President Lee's inaugural speech was turning the country into an advanced nation. An advanced nation is a room to spare in many areas such as economy, psychology, culture, the appreciation of beauty, among others. It is a beautiful country with autonomy and responsibility as a core spirit of the legal system to realize such beauty and rooms to spare.
Today, not any country can become an advanced nation just because of its quick economic growth. The advanced countries very seriously take the spiritual side of life and have a strong systematic base backed up people and facilitate developments in various areas of their societies.
But the situation today being what it is both internal and external does not allow much room for such margins. The new president would have gotten more hot applauses if his speech contained words to persuade the people to have such relaxed minds and gave inspirations.
President and the government which declared this year to be the initial year for national advancement should be at the forefront of the endeavor.
But this writer felt sorry that he did not stress building a legal system that people can trust and lead them to pledge a new start, knowing that they will receive justifiable compensations for their best efforts so that all people would work toward advancing the endeavor.
President Lee as the first Chief Executive who has experiences as the CEO of a large company and head of a local autonomous government has a mission to make the system of sharing responsibilities between the central and local governments advanced cannot be over emphasized.
The worst enemy that the president could have would be unnecessary political conflicts and it would have been better if the new president unveiled his plans for politics that would put the people at ease. May be he was reluctant to do so on his inauguration day.
It would have been better if he had shown his determination to pursue harmonious and integrated political activities after digesting all the pains that he endured from various events occurred during the election campaign and nomination such as a special investigation.
The Lee Myung-bak government set sail in a rough water. It had to endure a slight wound during the transition committee? activities and it faces the April general election.
The people elected him due to his practical ideas to revive the moribund economy. He faces times to realize that the people selected him only because of economic reasons, forsaking other values. He would learn how difficult it would be for the government to make decisions, and policies in a democratic and effective way at the present time when the rights for making national policies moving to parliament and the democratic society.
President Lee, known for his speedy moves would not have trouble catching up with various problems and solve them no matter how difficult they are. And at the same time, the nation would be patient and welcome the new government, the writer sincerely hopes. nw

By Choi Byung-sun
Dean of the Graduate School of Administration, Seoul National University