The time is quickly moving on as presidential election takes place within a week. Who will be the president – in other words, what characteristics does this president need to possess to qualify as one? All the people of this nation will be thinking of this question very deeply ever since the corruption saga of last year. The polls of survey which showed that ‘Will Vote’ is over 90% simply show such will of the people. It must be taken into the fact that such 90% of polls is not surprising anymore as the people of the nation needed to impeach its own president, whom they have selected by themselves on the previous election – something that the people of the nation wants to avoid from now on and going forward.
What exactly does this leader needs to be then? In principle, the leader can be found from the virtue of a true noble person. Thereupon, Confucius has always claimed that a leader needs to possess ‘three important characteristics(君子三面)’. A leader must have honor with dignity and be warm-hearted in that dignity together. And within that dignity and warmness, the leader must be practical and be ready with rational-thinking process in all he or she undergoes with in order to persuade the people, and so that the people also truly understand and trust what the leader is to implement with, Thereupon, a true leader with virtue forms. If our nation was called as ‘a nation with virtue’, why not we wait and hope for a genuine leader with dignity in this unsettled times?
Beyond the simple fundamental issues, who is the ideal candidate to lead the nation in this complex world with diverse problems? Not only to wisely solve the complicated domestic and foreign affairs, but also to help overcome all of these troubles in this unpredictable times. It is imperative than any other times of a true leader who could provide solutions of all of these unsolvable issues related to the crisis in the Korean peninsula.
It will be worth noting to quickly glance at the bright candidates. Note that there aren’t exactly the candidates who fit the above-mentioned categories – maybe this is the reason behind why the votes of 20% which simply won’t move. Some candidates would assert for unification, however triggering division in some way for his or her advantage, and some candidates don’t have the exact philosophies to implement his or her style of leadership from the first place. Some has knowledge, however without wisdom, and some has extreme ideology that doesn’t fit into the correct leadership to lead the nation appropriately.
Now the people of the nation themselves need to volunteer to become the eyes in monitoring the new leader, who will have a very heavy responsibility in solving issues such as the relationship with North Korea, unemployment crisis domestically, international and foreign affairs, complicated relationships between prosecutor office and the press as well as the religious leaders, and whom to hire in his or her cabinet in order to endure all the hardships going forward.
The reality of this nation with uncertainties and anxieties both in and out – there needs to be work done to unite the people domestically and to overcome all the issues externally as soon as possible.
How are we to compare this era! It would be like a ‘rugby ball’ as it bounces without any real prediction all the time, and it sure is as all these candidates are acting as one! Perhaps in this confused timing, such situation is making in place,and this rugby ball is similar to Don Quixote and like an audio frequency tuning to adjust to the unpredictable political leaders.
The calculated request by the US government on the cost of THAAD was certainly much unexpected (the price was bigger than one expected), and both the Korean government and its people lost their balances in even standing up straight from an ambush punch. This obviously is an aim to raise the cost towards the South Korean government as to regards to military spending, but also to guide Korea to import more of American weapons as a result of this. The willingness to amend or even stop the Korea-US FTA negotiations are clearly an approach to put pressure on Korea in both importing American goods and weapons, but also to implement Trump’s presidential election pledge- ‘Americanism’. Reading from an article “Is America really our ally?”,Trump’s political methods have no real directions that the whole world in full alert to monitor what exactly what he wants to do ultimately. And he continues to comment with mockery that “it is not necessary to monitor Trump” as he himself is the rugby ball. However, it there is a rugby ball in the West, there is another in the East – Kim Jong Un of North Korea. Trump’s strange poker games actually do not implement effectively into this North Korean dictator as Trump proves that as he recently stated “This North Korean guy is a pretty smart cookie”.
For this very reason, the 19th presidential election is extremely important as the new leader has to take the Korean ship on a right direction in a safe hand. The presidents are ultimately selected by the heaven, but let us not forget that the heaven is actually the people – and that these people are the protagonists in leading the future of our nation.
▶한국어버전: [천지일보 시론] 가장 복잡하고 중요한 시대를 이끌어 갈 지도자를 뽑아야 한다
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