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Talking about tapes from a clandestine bugging operation by the secret services under the Kim Young-sam administration, President Roh Moo-hyun said there were two schools of thought. ˇ°One holds that though the information was illicitly obtained, calling people to legal and moral account for corruption such as collusion between the administration, business and media can prevent a recurrence of similar incidents; the other hold that problems of balance can arise over other, as yet undisclosed crimes" that could be detected via some 8,000 tapes the operation is supposed to have amassed.
The justice minister said the tapes revealed a ˇ°defining example of the old state of affairs, confirming the old and sick mores of the past. The prosecution is expected to deal with it." The prosecutor-general, meanwhile, said the matter had two aspects: that a state agency secretly bugged citizens in their private life, and the wrongdoings the tapes reveal. ˇ°The statute of limitations has expired for eavesdropping but not for putting the tapes into circulation," he added.
So what is it to be? Who is going to be investigated, and why, and by whom? The president sounds as though he will determine that depending on which of the two views dominate public opinion. Yet the presidency requires the incumbent to make decisions in any circumstances and take responsibility for them. Presidential guidelines must be simple and explicit, especially when public opinion is divided. Only then can a further splitting of public opinion be prevented.
The justice minister, by contrast, seems inclined to stress probing whatever it is that the tapes reveal, while the prosecutor-general seems to have his eye on the bugging and the circulation of the tapes. If the top officials in charge of maintaining the rule of law in the country issue such contradictory instructions, pity the rank and file who have to figure out what they are supposed to do.
On the principle that we can move forward only if we investigate the past, this administration has set up all sorts of committees with sizeable budgets to take another look at murky incidents that happened 30 or 50 years ago. So why, when it was so clear on these matters, is it so utterly confused about something that happened only eight years ago, a ˇ°defining example of the old state of affairs,ˇ± no less?
Ambassador to the United States Hong Seok-hyun has resigned over the scandal, in another example of the administration's hopeless personnel vetting procedures. That is why we must be told when the administration first learned about the tapes: was it after Hong was confirmed in his post, or did the administration go ahead and appoint him regardless?
Anything the tapes can reveal are bygones; but who knows if the clandestine bugging operations have stopped. The heart of the matter is not that public figures were bugged in the past but whether the practice is still going on. At the moment all Korean citizens have to live with the uneasy sense that someone is listening. Nobody will believe the authorities if they deny it, because so did their predecessors, who had greedy ears everywhere. We need instead an institutional mechanism that would make eavesdropping impossible for the state.
If such a mechanism were in place, there would never again be a need for the authorities to trip over themselves issuing conflicting instructions. "Probe the truth. Prove promptly. Prevent recurrence." These three phrases would suffice.
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