The biggest problem with the Lee Myung-bak administration is that Cheong Wa Dae, the Cabinet and the party all lack talent. There are few faces the public can leave to get on with their job with any confidence. The best people are said to blossom in a crisis. This is a crisis, but no one is blossoming. The current crisis, then, is a crisis of trust, the worst of all. As ever, it comes back to the question of personnel.

The dearth of talent in this government is particularly conspicuous because it can be seen to contrast with the skill with which U.S. president-elect Barack Obama is picking his staff. Obama started by picking Hillary Clinton, his arch-rival in the presidential primaries as state secretary, and New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy Geithner, a young but sharp professional respected by the global financial establishment, as treasury secretary.

Obama gives Cabinet posts to heavyweights and calls in rivals, balancing and keeping the powers of each in check. The role of keeping Clinton in check will fall to vice president Joseph Biden. As director of the National Economic Council, who will complement Geithner, he has named former treasury secretary and Harvard University president Lawrence Summers. And as national security adviser who will restrain Defense Secretary Roberts Gates is former Marine Corps commander James Jones.

Obama's talent recruitment strategy is the same as Lincoln’s "team of rivals.” James Baker, the White House chief of staff during the first Reagan administration, says a strong leader must knows who he is and what his convictions are, and will not hesitate to surround himself with strong personalities. Michael Beschloss, a historian specializing in the U.S. presidency and American politics, shares the view.

Roosevelt enjoyed confrontations between his staff. If one side gained strength, he sided with the other to restrain it. As a result, his administration was always vigorous and full of ideas, Beschloss said.

But here? To begin with, are there people in the ruling party, administration and the presidential office with strong personalities who are faithful to their convictions, push forward decisions once made with courage and are prepared to argue with the chief executive? The culture is admittedly different, but I have never heard of such people here. Has the president ever attempted to let staff, administration and party confront one another in a bid to let one fill in where the other is lacking?

The problem lies in our mindset. Many people, civic groups, some unions, and above all politicians, are playing themselves the obstacle to nourishing and exploring talent. Potential leaders are picked or rejected for a raft of reasons such as the province of their birth, the college they graduated from, careers in certain administrations, excessive wealth, draft dodging, and electioneering in the camp of one or the other presidential contender. If qualifications are restricted this way, so are our choices, and we have to settle for second- and third-best. Instances abound when capable, courageous and fresh people were offered a government job but declined in horror at the confirmation hearings and the need to publish their assets.

If things carry on this way, the farce will continue where reports of the president scolding his staff for their incompetence make headlines as if they were a momentous matter of state. And the country will never see competent officials, from the very top down, who can not only put their heads together but also keep each other in check when necessary. There will also be no presidential staffer who will dare advise the president how careless it is to talk about interest rates, stock prices and exchange rates in public.

It is not enough for the president to work hard; he cannot do it alone. Men do not improve just because they are being shouted at. It's beyond comprehension why President Lee, despite vowing to devote his life to overcoming the crisis, sticks to the personnel structure that has already proven useless. If he indulges himself in the role of the self-righteous man, there will soon be no team left.