Seoul mayor Lee Myung Bak has apologized for his "emperor's tennis" by saying he is "sorry to the citizens for not being prudent as a public official," but he denied everything about monopolizing the Namsan tennis courts or suspicions about being the target of illegal "lobbying." He did not do anything wrong but he is sorry anyway, so you do not see any sincerity in his apology.
At the center of this whole affair is the fact that he was full of a sense of privilege, and that he lacks the ethics required for public office. Watching his press conference, it seems he still far from understanding that. That is regrettable.
Lee says that if there had been rounds of "emperor's tennis" waiting for him, then his office would not have needed to call two or three days ahead each time, and so he never enjoyed any special privileges. However, it is already established fact that during the last three years the president of the Seoul Tennis Association and a high-ranking official at the Seoul Sports Council reserved the courts and excluded regular members from using them. Current and former members of Korea's national team were brought in and made to wait to play as Lee's partners, and up until this all became a problem no one paid the W30 million in court fees. How could one not say he enjoyed special privileges? Also, he never gave a convincing explanation about the allegations of illegal favors in the construction of an indoor tennis court built on land slated for a school in Seoul's Jamwondong.
Even if you accept Lee's claim that he was too busy with running city government to know about such "working-level" issues, given what the situation has become it is wrong to think you can issue an vague apology and put it all behind you. We live in an era when the strictest of ethical standards are demanded of public officials, so much in fact that the prime minister had to step down when someone else paid the W30,000 bill when he played golf and bet W400,000. Lee needs to issue a truthful explanation and, based on that, take appropriate action.
The Hankyoreh, 21 March 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Lee Myung Bak's Apology Lacks Sincerity |
