When Huh Joon Young, nominee for the country's top police position, was inducted into the military, he was found to be colorblind and have poor eyesight, and so served in the reserves. It therefore is hard to see how he later passed the police physical exam with perfect eyesight. There were a lot of questions about that during his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly on Friday, but committee members were not persistent enough to get Huh to give anything more than vague evasive answers.
An important virtue for the National Police Agency superintendent is that he have a firm convictions about and a capacity to maintain civil rights and the welfare of the people, and his eyesight cannot be a major variable in his ability to perform his duties. But if he cheated on one of his eye tests or gave false testimony and that is why he had different eye test results by state agencies, then the matter is a serious one. You cannot have the leader of 150,000 police officers violating law and principles.
Twice in 1973 the military found his eyesight to be too poor for regular service, in addition to being colorblind. Then, starting in 1984, every test given him by the police showed him to have normal eyesight. During the confirmation hearing, he consistently acted like he didn't know anything, saying he never even knew he had been declared colorblind, and that he had no knowledge of why the results were different. He added that his eyesight improved after he took nutritional supplements, but that does not make his case very convincing.
It is only natural that you suspect that his eye tests at either the military or the police were not done right. Huh, the military, and the police have an obligation to disclose the truth, in detail, in a way that would be understood by the people. This is a question that also relates to the honor of the military and police. The police were not being straight with the country for not disclosing his physical records earlier.
The country has just been through the affair over the appointment of Lee Ki Jun as Deputy Prime Minister of Education and Human Resources Development, so it is regrettable to have new suspicions about a new high-level appointee surface so soon. It is fresh confirmation that the current government's personnel management system has holes in it. It has to make sure there is not a repeat of questions arising only after it has failed to adequately investigate a potential appointee's particulars relating to his fulfillment of basic national duties such as taxes and military conscription.
The Hankyoreh, 15 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] The Top Cop's Eyes |
