Posted on : Jan.19,2018 17:28 KST
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Former President Lee Myung-bak refuses to answer reporters’ questions while leaving his office in the Gangnam district of Seoul following his public statement on Jan. 17. (by Shin So-young, staff photographer)
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After former president Lee Myung-bak denounced the prosecutors’ investigation into the National Intelligence Service’s (NIS) diversion of the special activity fund as “political retaliation,” his associates went on the warpath and threatened that they would “not just stand idly by.” President Moon Jae-in voiced his indignation at the remarks, and the ruling party raised an unconfirmed charge that part of the NIS’s special activity fund had been used to buy name-brand products for Lee’s wife, Kim Yoon-ok.
The prosecutors are worried that the criminal investigation, which is still underway, will be sidetracked by political bickering. It would be best for politicians to refrain from making remarks and to wait for the prosecutors to finish their investigation.
Lee bears the biggest share of the blame for setting things off on the wrong foot by fanning the flames of political controversy. Since he’s at the center of the investigation, he has the right to explain himself and to rebut the allegations. This would require him to talk about concrete facts.
But he hasn’t uttered a single word about the issue of the special activity fund, which has landed several of his key associates in jail. He hasn’t offered a single word of apology, even though the courts view the charges as credible. If he doesn’t acknowledge the allegations, he ought to say that they’re false. It’s only too obvious that he hopes to drag the investigation into the political mud by decrying it as “political retaliation.”
The behavior of Lee’s allies is pathetic as well. Try as they might to spread rumors about conspiracies and people pulling the strings, the facts aren’t going to just go away. Their vague threat to go public with “something serious” is a cheap ploy that smacks of desperation. Former Blue House Senior Secretary of Public Relations Kim Du-woo’s remark that “maybe it’s time for some mudslinging” makes clear that they’re willing to pull out all the stops to survive this crisis.
Nor does it look very good for some members of the ruling party to raise allegations that have not been adequately confirmed. Democratic Party lawmaker Park Hong-geun said during a public meeting that some of the NIS’s special activity fee was used to purchase luxury items for Lee’s wife Kim Yoon-ok. This allegation is somewhat specific, and Park even attributed it to a tip from a deposition given to the prosecutors, but the prosecutors denied this allegation as being “unconfirmed.”
The utmost prudence is required for going public with concrete accusations. That’s even more true when they concern the wife of a former president. We don’t want to see the kind of preposterous claims that were raised against former president Roh Moo-hyun, who was accused of having thrown away an expensive wristwatch in a rice paddy.
On a personal level, we can understand the anger felt by Moon. There can be no denying that Lee crossed the line when he brought up Roh’s death, and Moon’s desire to emphasize that the Blue House has nothing to do with the prosecutors’ investigation is laudable as well. But ultimately, it’s undeniable that the president’s remarks could be viewed as an order for the prosecutors to throw the book at the suspects. Lee and his allies may in fact have been attempting to politicize the issue in exactly this way.
It’s unfortunate that past presidents have been subject to a string of misfortunes. But this just means that investigations into past presidents must be even more strict and impartial. The possibility of political calculations must be nipped in the bud, and the facts and evidence must be allowed to speak for themselves. We hope that politicians will restrain themselves and calmly wait for the investigation to run its course.
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