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Lee Myung-bak
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[Interview] Outgoing Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak
After a four-year stint as Seoul mayor, Lee Myung-bak will step down on June 30. Much attention is being paid to his next move, as he is considered one of the likely presidential candidates for the Grand National Party (GNP). The Hankyoreh sat down with him in his office June 28 to learn what is on his mind and what political moves he plans to make after his departure from his post. Lee emphasized the unification of leadership as the ability particularly required for the next President.
Q: How do you feel as outgoing Seoul mayor?
A: I am leaving with a very grateful heart. I want to thank everyone, including citizens, shop owners, and street vendors. My staffers have also worked hard, sometimes even staying up nights. I am also grateful to the civic groups that opposed me. Initially, I felt unrewarded when faced with their objections to some of my work, but they were the people who helped me to think more carefully about what I was doing.
Q: What have you focused on during your final year as chief of Seoul city?
A: I focused on the promotion of culture and the welfare of the socially underprivileged. Last year, the city inked a deal with business owners in Seoul that required each of them to hire at least 3 to 10 homeless. Once hired, these people would get paid 50,000 ($50) per day as their wages. The city would put up half of the bill. If these new hires start to deposit the money they earn in a bank, the bank will reward them by doubling their interest earnings. If their deposit reaches 10 million won ($10,000), they will be eligible for subsidized housing that would cost them only 50,000 won ($50) a month. After the implementation of these measures, they really began to work harder. They even asked to work on Saturdays. After all, one’s workplace should be able to provide hope to its workers.
Q: What are the qualities necessary for the next leader of the nation?
A: Unifying leadership. The society is too divided now. Instead of dividing it further, the next leader should be able to unify the nation. The next job in line would be to revive the nation’s economy.
Q: Between a lawmaker and a local leader, which do you think is better qualified for the presidential job?
A: The global trend of leadership is to run a country like the CEO of a company. In the U.S., there were many governors who later became president.
Q: In your hiring for the city’s various posts, you said you didn’t consider their political affiliations. Would you do the same if you become the president?
A: This is absolutely necessary. In elections, you will always have those who oppose you. But once elected, you should be able to work with them as a team. A president who only gets half support wouldn’t be able to fulfill his job. We can do it as a team if we focus on policies, instead of focusing on different party affiliations. Then the president can make use of a huge pool of talented people.
Q: What is your plan after stepping down?
A: I am going to spend a few days with my family and also meet some friends. Then, I will visit some rural areas. I know my experience of running a company would be helpful to the industrialization of rural areas, particularly in marketing. The self-employed and service sectors are having difficulty these days. We’ll see more laid-off workers this year and next year. This is worrisome. I will take some time to visit the countryside for brainstorming. We need to be able to provide these people with a way to survive, and my experience will be helpful to them.
Q: Do you have any plans to visit other countries soon?
A: Starting from August, I will visit some overseas industries and institutes related to the tasks that I will be doing in Korea. I will visit several places, including Germany and the Netherlands.
Q: After stepping down from the Seoul mayoral post, what will be your role in the GNP?
A: Next year, I will serve as an advisor to the party. For the time being, I am just an ordinary party member. There is little for me to do. When there is a new party leader and new party officials, they will be able to steer the party well.
Q: What are qualifications to become the leader of the GNP?
A: Some of the images the party has accumulated over a period of time include "a regionally based party," "a hard-core conservative party," and "a party that is run by money." The party has been putting in a considerable effort to get rid of these negative images, and in that sense a reform-minded person should be the next party leader. It should also be someone who is critical about what the government is doing and should be able to effectively question the pro-government Uri Party’s drive for Constitutional amendment. Fairly good managerial skills in party operations is also a must.
Q: The GNP may win the presidential race. But does it also have the ability to run the nation well?
A: At least we are better than the Uri party (laughs). In the GNP, we have people who have had rich experiences in different fields.
Q: Do you think it is possible for the GNP to reform from within?
A: Its decision to turn the party’s controversial training center over to the State coffer in the wake of an investigation into an illegal election fund scandal is a bold gesture in that direction. However, since many people have different views, it will take some time to change their perceptions. The election to select the party leader will be such an occasion to shed those negative images.
Q: What do you think about the "Future Forum," an organization run by the party’s young lawmakers?
A: I see it positively. The young legislators are trying to change and reform things.
Q: What's your take on Park Geun-hye, the former party leader?
A: Some may view her in a negative light. I see her positively in that she is a leader with a considerable political capability. She took over the party during its time of difficulty and demonstrated her leadership through several elections. Although [as a former president's daughter] she didn’t have much social exposure, she unified the party during its crisis.
Q: Do you think that the next president can be a female?
A: That is up the voters to decide. Although there are voices saying that it’s too early for Korea to have a female president when the nation is faced with issues such as the North-South Korea division and reclaiming the wartime operational control of its troops, we cannot say that South Korea can never have a female president.
Q: There is some debate within GNP surrounding the movement to expand the capital city.
A: There are areas of close cooperation among Seoul and nearby Incheon and Gyeonggi Province anyway. But we invited misunderstanding by calling it a "bigger capital." The term made local provinces feel threatened, provoking a fear that the expanding capital region might encroach their ability for self-governance. It’s actually a time for us to work on creating separate economic zones. For example, Daejeon needs to closely cooperate with the Chungnam region; Busan with the Kyungnam region. The controversy was created because we chose a wrong name for what we want to do. I don’t think it will draw much dispute in the future.
Q: Rep. Lee Jae-oh, the GNP’s floor leader, is linking the private school reform bill as a precondition for passing other bills.
A: The Uri party got around the opposition party to pass bills in the past. Now, the opposition party thinks it is payback time and is holding up the bills now. The opposition party doesn’t have any intention to deliberately delay or oppose bills that are closely related to the people’s livelihood. The president met with the floor leaders of both the Uri and the GNP the other day. Now, it’s time for the pro-government party to show more signs of sincerity.
Q: If elected as president, will you nullify or downsize the plan for creating the so-called "multifunctional administrative city?"
A: From an economic perspective, the plan won’t significantly help to revive central South Korea’s regional economy. We need other plans. I am pondering the issue. We need an alternative that is bigger and more realistic than the big city plan, and the alternative should be one that can economically combine the areas of Gongju, Yeongi, and Daejeon.
Q: Some familiar faces are getting ready to run in the July 26 by-elections.
A: The party and the party nomination screening committee will make the right choices. The GNP, after all, needs to change. Change means going forward. There isn’t a real change in going backward.
Q: You suggested forming a united front between southeast and southwest regions. Does this mean the union between the GNP and the Democratic Party?
A: The regionalism between the southwestern and southeastern regions was created by politicians. Of course, the tension will decrease as the economically disadvantaged southwestern region improves economically. But we cannot just wait and see until that happens. There are areas for political cooperation now.
Q: Have you ever met and talked with the people at the Democratic Party?
A: I would say no (laughs).
Q: How do you foresee the political revamping of the Uri Party?
A: The combined pro-government parties have the majority seats in the National Assembly. I don’t understand why they want to do it.
Q: They say it’s because they don’t have any major presidential candidate.
A: They should make one then. I don’t know about their plans for possible policy changes and reorientations of their political philosophy, but if they change things in order to gain more votes in the elections, it won’t earn the public’s support.
Q: What’s the possibility for the Goh Kun, the former premier, to run as Uri’s presidential candidate?
A: He needs to clearly establish his own identity. It will be a great irony that if he is ideologically affiliated with the GNP and runs as the Uri candidate.
Q: How would you rate the Roh Moo-hyun administration?
A: He made political funding come out into the open and legalized it. It was done in such a short span of time. He also changed many of the bureaucratic practices of the past governments. But he went too far to undermine its very authority. Although I won’t ask for his leaving the Uri party, he should maintain his political neutrality. If he contributes fairly to creating the next government, the people will acknowledge his deeds. He should make an all-out effort to boost the economy and prevent political lobbying from unduly influencing politics, as seen in the previous elections.
Q: There are some less than positive views within the party about Oh Se-hoon, the Seoul mayor-elect. His appointment of Choi Yeol as head of the transition committee is drawing some criticism.
A: It’s premature to judge him before his inauguration. Let’s wait and see. The committee is simply an ad hoc body without any legal backing.
Q: They are many who point you out as a vanguard in the reform and changes of the Seoul city.
A: It was team work. It was valuable and meaningful because it was done as a team, by people who came from different backgrounds and different interests. Other countries also tend to see the restoration of Chonggyechon waterway project as a case that successfully moderated different interests.
Q: So, is it fair to say that the reason for its success lies in the balancing of different needs?
A: Fair enough.
Q: When was the most difficult moment in your four-year stint?
A: It was the time when I had to offer apology on television only three days after the city changed its traffic operating system. However, I received many words of thanks afterwards. For example, a student from Ewha Womans University presented to me a flower vase out of the money she had saved from the revised traffic system. I also received countless words of encouragements from regular citizens whose names I cannot remember individually.
