Perhaps because of this, the Lee Myung-bak administration has completely stopped paying attention to politics and was proud of it. It gives the impression that it has no political radar at all or is severely deficient in that department. But the absence of the political sense is every bit as much an affliction as compulsive politicking. If politics is ignored where it has to be played, government suffers.

Politics is like a lubricant. A car doesn't move with lubricants alone, but without them, the engine parts rub together and get worn down. In extreme cases they seize up.

Former president Kim Young-sam said politics is in the eyes of others. How it is reflected in the political arena is no less important than the substance. The Lee administration is in trouble because it is insensitive to how what it does looks to the public eye.

President Lee cannot have decided to resume importing U.S. beef because he does not care about public health. He did it because he thought American beef is safe since 300 million Americans, who enjoy one of the best standards of living in the world, eat it every day, and because the U.S. made ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement contingent on the resumption of imports.

But public opinion did not follow that line of thinking. At home, U.S. beef is not mere food; it has long been a political issue. So a political consideration should have been made that deciding to resume U.S. beef imports on the eve of a Korea-U.S. summit would look as though the president sold out public health for a bed at Camp David. Instead, presidential aides had to admit they completely failed to anticipate the ensuing uproar.

The problems are not confined to the beef issue. In the wake of Lee's election, the public has taken a wait-and-see attitude over ministerial and Cheong Wa Dae appointments, watching closely just how many of them were filled with people who were graduates of Lee’s alma mater Korea University, affiliated with his Somang Presbyterian Church or from his home region of Yeongnam. Had it addressed that perception, the administration's personnel decisions wouldn't have been so controversial.

When his meeting with former Grand National Party chairwoman Park Geun-hye was announced, most people guessed Lee was aiming at a solution to the division with seditious members of Park’s camp. But nothing noticeable came out of the one-hour- 50-minute meeting. That the two met at all was the achievement, says Cheong Wa Dae. But the public reaction was, "What on earth did they meet for?"

Presidential aides tell reporters they cannot understand Lee by looking at him with an eye accustomed to Korea’s traditional political games. But it is nonsense to tell the public to correct the angle from which we view the president: the responsibility for these perceptions, surely, lies not with the beholder but with the administration.

Whenever the Grand Canal project or the Korea-U.S. FTA became controversial, Lee said, “Don’t politicize the issue.” His concerns about the damage the game of politics can do to the handling of national affairs are fully understandable. But government without the political sense is just as risky. If excessive politicking distorts government, so can the total absence of political sense. The chief executive and his associates have paid dearly for their abhorrence of politics. I hope they have learned their lesson.