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The Park Chung-hee syndrome is forming again with another year to go before next year's presidential elections. The Korea Society Opinion Institute conducted a survey into the phenomenon in March this year and found that 86 percent of the respondents felt Park had more accomplishments than faults. Some 80 percent of respondents in their 20s and 30s were favorably inclined to the authoritarian leader, with the figure rising above 90 percent among those over 40. Some 77 percent of supporters of the ruling Uri Party and 98 percent of supporters of the opposition Grand National Party gave Park their thumbs up.
The same thing happened when former president Kim Young-sam was nearing the end of his term in office and the 1997 presidential elections were just around the corner. A Gallup poll in May 1997 revealed that 80 percent of respondents felt positive about Park. Asked if they would support a candidate like Park supposing one emerged, 67 percent said yes, while only 20 percent said no.
Park has never failed to come top in the popular evaluation of past presidents. When Gallup surveyed Korea's favorite presidents in June 2004, Park was no. 1 with 48 percent, followed by Kim Dae-jung with 14 percent, Roh Moo-hyun with 7 percent, Chun Doo-hwan with 2 percent, Kim Young-sam and Syngman Rhee with 1 percent. What the year 1997 and the year 2006 have in common is the economic difficulties plaguing the nation. Korea was on the cusp of the financial crisis in 1997 and is suffering an economic slowdown now, too. That is why it is natural to conclude that Park Chung-hee syndrome is directly related to the economic hardship ordinary people feel.
Experts predict candidates will try to take advantage of the Park image to win more votes because the public's desire for a more economically savvy president has grown. Lee Myoung-jin, a professor at the Department of Sociology of Kookmin University, said, "The worse the economic situation becomes, the higher the number of people in our society who want strong leadership that offers clear goals and visions of economic development.Ħħ
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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