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Three people dominate the news: Roh Moo-hyun, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye. Roh hurls abuse at Lee and Park, while Park and Lee are engaged in a mutual mudslinging match.
These three people completely dominate political news, and this in a country where the only law in the civilized world of its kind permits the government to impose sanctions on newspapers the moment the combined circulations of the top three exceeds 60 percent of the entire circulation of all dailies.
But the three are not of the same class. The undisputed star is, of course, the president. This world-class president's four-hour one-man show -- produced and directed by and starring himself -- has caused a small storm. I mean not that his speech was delivered to thunderous applause but that it left nothing and no one unscathed -- the Constitution, senior military veterans, his former comrades with whom he founded the Uri Party, and the largest opposition party and its presidential contenders. The only ones not hurt by his speech were his favorites, such as the ruling camp's presidential aspirants he himself is training up, and his own associates.
Of course, the most damage the president did with that performance was to himself. Yet he seems relaxed, and ready to take on the National Election Commission to boot. He looks as though he believes that if his gamble works, his approval ratings will rise by a few notches, but if not, he still has nothing to lose because he will be out within a few months anyway.
The message of the one-man show was a clear warning to the public and the opposition camp: "There's nothing I won¡¯t do." There is really nothing more fearful in the world than a person or a country that will stop at nothing.
In 1956 when Hungarian citizens took to the streets in anti-government demonstrations, Soviet tanks, not Hungarian police, arrived to suppress the demonstrations. In 1968, a similar incident occurred in then Czechoslovakia. As a result, the Soviet Union left a deep impression on the people and was feared by all. In 1972 when the U.S.-Vietnamese truce talks were going at a snail's pace, U.S. president Richard Nixon abruptly rained enormous amounts of shells on Haiphong Port in North Vietnam. North Vietnam had no choice but to return to the negotiation table, and Nixon became a president feared by all. This is called the "madman strategy" in international politics. In our part of the world, the masters of the strategy are North Korean rulers Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Usually, it is used by one country against another, and no president of a democratic nation has yet tried to browbeat his own people saying, "There's nothing I won¡¯t do." Only the president of the Republic of Korea delivered a message that gave the public, the largest opposition party and its presidential contenders the shivers.
Roh attacked GNP front-runner Lee Myung-bak by saying ¡°no one in their right mind¡± would invest in Lee¡¯s cross-country canal project. As for Park Geun-hye, he said it would be ¡°embarrassing¡± to see foreign newspapers say that the Korean leader ¡°is a daughter of the late dictator" Park Chung-hee. Maybe it is out of their fear of Roh's madman strategy that Lee and Park are focusing on the need to vet each other's credentials instead, presumably because they believe they will have to prepare for the worst once the real election campaign gets underway.
The president will not sit idle and watch the GNP take power, since that, he said, would be ¡°horrible." It is his best bet to set Lee and Park loose on each other until they collapse bleeding. He would lose nothing if either of them survived the dogfight since he believes he can still deal a final blow to the survivor at the eleventh hour. The final target of the madman strategy is the survivor. Let it never be said that Roh Moo-hyun is over the hill: like a sadistic guard, he is egging Lee and Park into a fight to the death between fools.
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