Korea: Roh Moo Hyun Syndrome

[…] Actually, the Roh Moo Hyun syndrome this time is not the first time. In the 2002 Presidential Election, the media named the popularity of Roh Moo Hyun in the internet as the Roh Moo Hyun syndrome. What the world is curious about is why the Roh Moo Hyun syndrome came back again. After his retirement, everyone thought that he could disappear behind history. But against the odds, the Roh Moo Hyun syndrome came back online and offline.[…] These explosive interests in the retired president is a new symptom that hasn’t been seen in our society. But conservative media, such as Chosun, Joongang, Dong-a, and Moonhwa newspapers, try to judge this as a temporary curiosity that citizens have. Even though people who visit his hometown, Bongha Village, are from Nosamo or have temporary curiosity, I wonder how those conservative media will explain continual interest in him on- and off-line at present.

Lee Myung Bak vs Roh Moo Hyun

Roh Moo Hyun blocked close relationships between the authority and press (This is like the authority stopped drugs). He didn’t give bones to dogs (newspapers) and didn’t lie to people (If you tame dogs well, your life would be comfortable. There are politicians who can stand with the support of these dogs. These dogs sometimes pick the owners up by themselves. Sometimes, the owners bow to dogs). If it is difficult, he said it is difficult. If it is no, he said no. (His philosophy for governing the country was simply ‘common sense.’ Therefore, he was criticized a lot. Newspapers were mad, because he didn’t give any bones to them. So, they bit his legs for all five years.[…]

Lee Myung Bak resurrected close relations between the authority and press (national assembly man, Hwang, in Incheon told reporters, ‘let’s work together. Dong-a Newspaper gave up a female reporter’s right (who sued a national assemblyman for grabbing her breast) and reporters got together with the Grand National Party men at Karaoke. I don’t know whether they got bones already, but they work well. They call Lee Myung Bak, CDMA president, president who give rice to us, successful president, and encourage people to support him. Even though it is difficult, he says it’s not difficult. Even though it is no, he says yes.[…]

Roh Moo Hyun thought about our future. Even though we asked him to give medicine, he didn’t give. Because it could cause more pain…. Therefore there was no aftermath either. Helping in the short term… If he did, his popularity could go up at once. But Roh Moo Hyun didn’t do that no matter how much he was blamed.

Lee Myung Bak thinks about our present. (future? That’s depending on individuals) He promised to decrease oil price, telecommunication fee, and tax. But the oil price went up. He didn’t do anything for telecommunications fees. Tax decrease was for the wealthy who have ‘gold membership’ of 100 million won [US$100,000]. The land on spec, plagiarism, dual citizenship, military exemption, tax evasion… with his loyal servants who use 300,000 won soap box, he discussed 100 won increase of Ramen. To him, the present is important. Tomorrow? Next? Future?… he doesn’t care.

We citizens got strange. We have a strange symptom to miss Roh Moo Hyun. Stupid Roo Moo Hyun, blamed Roo Moo Hyun… even though cleaned clothes were dropped in dust, it was regarded as due to Roh Moo Hyun. But why do people look back at such a stupid Roh Moo Hyun?

Do we citizens go through the pain to grow up… I want to believe that way.

Let’s check the economic problem, the biggest problem at present. Looking at the sub-prime crisis, the economic crisis of the U.S., I would like to comment. The US crisis has been developed from the failure of property policies to financial crisis. Let’s see property policies when Roh Moo Hyun was under the position. Of them, let’s look into sudden rise of apartment prices that media and citizens blamed the most.

When he was the president, the increase on housing price was limited in the Metropolitan area (comparing to other governments, it is the narrow range). The price was to stay or to decrease in countryside. The reason why the metropolitan area increased was due to fundamental problem of housing policies of Seoul. When Lee Myung Bak was the Seoul Mayor, he implemented construction of new towns and approved high price apartment building. After that, the housing price rapidly went up. Roh Moo Hyun was the one who held course and tried to control property policy. But media condemned him.[…] I think about Roh Moo Hyun while I am watching the subprime crisis in the U.S.A. What he did well was to suppress realty policies from the early last year. Checking economic trend of the U.S.A., he propelled strong measures. At that time, he limited the loan capacity and could prevent a sub prime crisis. Even though real estate in Korea has bubbled to four times more than America when we compare profits, Roh Moo Hyun did a good job to the end of his governance. With this one thing, he is worth to get praise from us citizens.

It’s impossible to already judge the new government even before they started yet. As a matter of fact, that’s true that they have several moral problems, but the capability is the first priority and we should support their propulsive force. We don’t have to feel sorry for the previous government. They’re the one who made the citizens suffer.

Since the online market became popular, and news that we could obtain through broadcast and newspapers are easy to get from the Internet, the extent of netizens’ criticism of reporters is getting bigger. As a matter of fact, looking at major news on portal sites, such as Naver, I can see a lot of opinions that criticize reporters. Some of them contain constructive criticism, but most of them are speaking ill of reporters. Of course, some of news from reporters should be criticized. News about supporting a minister’s voluntary resignation in a monthly magazine several days ago could be one of them… or some news aggressively supporting the current government are way too much. It is not only because there are many frequencies of exposure, but also because netizens also have information as much as reporters have. In particular, political issues are especially noticeable. In the period of Roh Moo Hyun government, when there was news criticizing Roh Moo Hyun, netizens’ reactions were amazing. What I remember the most is a report that, because of the previous president’s visit to Africa, some people couldn’t get the national pension. He didn’t go to Africa for fun… it was an absurd report. I wonder whether the reporters knew about netizens’ reactions about their writings. If they knew, I wonder how they would react.
[…]Through online media, there are more reporters than the past. Due to that, the treatment is much worse than before. There are diverse contents of news depending on media’s characteristics. When people would like to criticize, it should be more serious. Reporters should also listen to the opinions[…]