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In a Gallup poll on the occasion of President Lee Myung-bak¡¯s first 100 days in office, his approval rating stood at 21.2 percent. The reasons why people did not support the president were that he ¡°does not listen to public opinion¡± (21.3.percent), ¡°implements policies without full preparation¡± (14.7 percent) and also public dissatisfaction with the U.S. beef import deal (8 percent). Those three reasons combined add up to 44 percent. In other words, many people are dissatisfied with the president¡¯s unwillingness to listen to them.
The president was not listening to the public when he appointed wealthy landowners (who are not perceived as being tuned into the needs and concerns of the general public) to key posts in his government, stubbornly pursuing the cross-country canal project and the beef talks. The president has no excuse when it comes to the failed appointments of several key government posts. The majority of Koreans are not experts when it comes to the grand canal, but they are clearly fed up with the president¡¯s fixation on the mammoth project. Even though the opening of Korea¡¯s beef market was inevitable, the timing was wrong and there were flaws in the way the Korean government handled the negotiations, including errors in translation. Also, there was absolutely no effort prior to the talks to win the support of the Korean public.
Of course, there are things the government cannot do even though the public wants it to be done. According to the Gallup survey, 81.2 percent of Koreans wanted Seoul to renegotiate the beef deal. The Korean government could listen and ask the U.S. to renegotiate the beef deal, but there is virtually no chance that Washington will agree to a move that will be unpopular with voters when the presidential race is under way there. We may end up being labeled as an untrustworthy country. Some 33.2 percent of Koreans believe they can contract mad cow disease by consuming U.S. beef. The government may be partly to blame that the Korean public feels so scared, but it cannot formulate national policy based on incorrect information. Additional measures need to be implemented to quell public fears, but there are limits to what the president and the government can do when it comes to mad cow fears.
But a shake-up in key government posts and the cross-country canal project are issues that can be changed according to the president¡¯s decision. Cheong Wa Dae is said to be considering a reshuffle of the officials who created problems, including the ministers of agriculture, health and education, as well as chief presidential secretaries. If the reshuffle comes, then the president would be perceived as listening to the public.
Only 17.5 percent of Koreans supported the canal project, while almost 70.7 percent opposed it. The logic behind the opposition to the grand waterway is not as shallow as the one stoking mad cow fears. If he is truly willing to listen to the public, then the president must do something clear and decisive about the canal project.
A total of 51 percent of Koreans believed the president will perform better, while 41.1 percent did not. The public has not given up on its hopes for the president. But until the public finally feels that the president is listening to what it has to say, amid the present chaos, we will be unable to tell what is real from what is fake and what the government should and should not do.
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