The presidential campaign is as despicable as can be. The issues being fought over by the various factions involved are being dwarfed by the irrelevant. You would think that a presidential election would deserve some serious debate relating to the issues confronting our generation, but you see none in this election. It's as if we've industrialized, democratized, and so there's nothing noble left to talk about. Not surprisingly, the fully developed countries of the world have seen their elections be reduced to being about the petty and practical. But is our situation the same as theirs?

We may have achieved economic development, but we're still a risk country. We're a tiny little divided nation stuck amidst the influence of four of the world's major powers; this alone is enough to keep us awake at night and uncomfortable. The World Economic Forum's "national competitiveness ranking" has Korea 21st out of 80, but that is nothing to be proud of. The countries we face on a daily basis placed 1st (USA), 3rd (Taiwan), 4th (Singapore), 13th (Japan), and 17th (Hong Kong), and not the states that placed in the fifties and seventies. China may be 33rd, but it has 1.3 billion people and is catching up fast.

It's not like we're electing an elementary school class president. We're supposed to be voting over who is going to lead an entire country, an event that just begs for the parties involved to come out and argue over where the country should be going and how we should get there. Sure we've got the usual campaign promises, speeches, policy papers, and statements of belief, but they've all been enumerations of right-looking policies, as if in a department store window. What we're not seeing is competing visions that are systematic and comprehensive. What are we supposed to do after industrialization, democratization, and internationalization? Not that we've achieved truly first class standards in those areas either, but the times cry out for vision as to what the next phase should be.

We've industrialized, but some things are so backwards they hold back further development. We've democratized, but it's been distorted into something close to hooliganism. The presidential hopeful that will "Bury The Three Kims Era Once And For All" should be able to say "let's leave this mess and go somewhere else," this while telling us what that somewhere, somehow, and something is. Lee Hoi-chang and his people seem to think they've got it made if they're careful and no major problems arise. Roh Moo-hyun and his aides are accused of engaging in the "politics of subtraction." Chung Mong-joon still gets asked what if anything he stands for politically.

There's a flood of rhetoric, but no debate about post-industrialization, post-democratization phenomena such as the dissolution of social norms and national chaos, about how to advance the country further. How do they expect voters to differentiate and chose one "presidential product" between them?

It's time for the real debate to begin, a debate becoming of the name. We might begin by asking "How will we turn our society into a highly dignified one, this from the vulgar state it's in today?" I wonder because in my view the phenomena related to social collapse since democratization all originate from the flood of populism that continues to reach new lows.

Make no mistake, the policies and promises being put forth by each candidate are all beautiful. But all the advanced thinking won't get far in a vulgar society and vulgar climate. You can't advance civilization in a climate full of gangster-like mobs. We may have achieved democracy, but so far we've failed to create and internalize social norms for the era of democracy.

There was a time when we had hope in social campaigns that would promote the establishment of social rules becoming of a democratic civic society. These hopes eroded away quickly. This being the case, it's at this point worth asking for a systematization of democratic norms through the reform of the state as a whole. This is why the men who would be president need to engage in heated debate. We mustn't let this reckless situation continue.

(Chosun Ilbo Editor in Chief)

November 15, 2002