[Editorial] Shin's Appointment an Insult to Korean Sport

Former deputy speaker of the National Assembly Shin Sang Woo is said to have been chosen as the next commissioner of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). It turns out the rumors that started circulating at the end of November were true, and the delay tactics the KBO had at work since then were all highly advanced tactics for facilitating Shin's smooth arrival. The organization's board of directors says the choice is "because none of the eight teams recommended anyone," but that is transparent nonsense. How were teams going to recommend anyone when they could see what the intentions of the powers that be were well enough for themselves?

Shin has everything it always takes to be placed in a position he is unqualified for in one of those "parachute appointments." His career so far has had nothing to do with baseball or even with sport in general. But he does happen to have graduated from the same high school as president Roh Moo Hyun, and three years ago he officiated when Roh's son got married.

As soon as the baseball world heard the rumors it came out opposition to Shin's appointment and called for someone with expertise, someone who could bring reform to professional Korean baseball and all its problems, but that was like reading scripture to a cow. The only conclusion you can make about why Shin will be the new commissioner is that the position is a "gift" from the president. Roh has been appointing people as "payback" or for being from the same region much more than usual these days, and this latest move takes it to a whole new level.

Shin's appointment is insulting to everyone in baseball and everyone in sport. Korean baseball was somewhat exceptional in that it was increasingly having "popularly elected" commissioners, but now it looks like the clock of history is moving backwards. If feels miserable to have to watch a repeat of the abuses of the authoritarian regimes of years past, when positions leading sport organizations were kept in the regime's pocket like the spoils of power. It makes you want to ask if this is what the Participatory Government was talking about when it said it wanted "reform-oriented appointments."

The Hankyoreh, 27 December 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]