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Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan has resigned over the outcry that followed his golf outing with a group of troubled businessmen on March 1, one of Korea¡¯s most solemn national holidays and the start of a crippling rail strike, apologizing to President Roh Moo-hyun for the trouble caused by his ¡°careless behavior.¡± Roh then consulted ruling Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young, who told him Lee must go, and accepted the resignation.
The scandal has finally come to an end. Now the government has to set the national administration back on course, and that will require asking some awkward questions so we do not repeat the same mistake.
Not a day in the last two years has passed without complaints, and not because Lee is particularly lacking in the way he does his job -- on the contrary, Roh has praised him as being better at national administration than the president himself. But Lee¡¯s ethics are a different kettle of fish altogether.
The golfing scandal is not about Lee¡¯s ability but about his personal conduct. If the government is to draw a map of life after Lee, it has to look hard into the question of both. The premier, for instance, was fond of bawling out opposition lawmakers in the National Assembly, and other ministers took their lead from him in a veritable concerto of below-the-belt attacks.
People who consider themselves above the rest easily spit words that can be deeply hurtful, all the while pretending that their own conscience is crystal clear. Then the same people play golf - for money, no less - and plot backroom deals with businessmen who are under investigation for irregularities. If on top of that they brazenly lie about it afterwards, is it any wonder people want them gone?
We need a leader who can serve as a model of conduct in a nation full of vicious talk and torn with dissent. That is what the president has to keep in mind when he looks for a new prime minister.
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