The Grand National Party's (GNP) new spokesman Lee Ke Jin and his press briefing are the talk of the town. From the start he said he wants to issue statements that contribute to making politics interesting, and already his style is entirely unlike that of his predecessor Chun Yu Ok, whose commentary was full of vituperation. His comments have earned names like "sunshine statements."
A few of his statements have caused a lot of controversy. "A woman's eggs are generated naturally and they don't disappear," he said when speaking about allegations regarding professor Hwang Woo Suk's research team. "It's not like [Hwang] kidnapped women on the street and took them forcefully."
That was not said very well, because while it is fine to express support for Hwang, Lee in effect is suggesting that questions of bioethics be ignored.
About allegations regarding corruption at a project at Opo, Gwangju City, Gyeonggi Province, and specifically that Construction and Transportation Minister Chu Byung Jik took a W50 million bribe, Lee said he "would like to be able to understand and let it go." The criticism is that he did not treat the issue with the seriousness that public service ethics deserves.
It is clearly a problem if a spokesman hastily issues statements without detailed prior knowledge and ample thought about what he is about to say, and so it would appear that Lee has a lot to work on. Still, he has to be credited with avoiding "criticism for criticism's sake" and working hard at "soft politics."
Lately, spokespeople at the country's political parties have been contributing to an increase in the mutual hate and hurting the quality of Korean politics as a whole, with their vicious attacks and language so abusive it would normally be hard to use in public. The people's disgust for politics has grown in proportion to the coarseness of the spokespeople. We hope that Lee never forgets his initial desire to remain humble and that as a result other spokespeople would join in the effort to clean up the language.
The Hankyoreh, 24 November 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Hoping Party Spokespeople Watch Their Mouths |
