The Last Dialogue > IDEAS & IDEALS

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The five-year term of Roh Moo-hyun's presidency nearing to its end, it is quite natural for us all to turn our attention to the presidential election to be held on December 19  this year, and to the candidate who is most likely to be elected.  Names of the serious runners are known to us and unofficial campaigning has already started. One very conspicuous candidate who had enjoyed the first runner place in the poll from the start have already quit the contest confronting the tough reality of the race and seeing the slim chance of being elected.

     Among these candidates there is a man who is not very likely to be one. His name is Chung Un-chan, former president of Seoul National University. Still it is not that clear whether he would really run the race to the end. As of today he has not yet publicly or officially announced his intention to run. He does not belong to any political party, nor does he have money, nor has he any group or organization ardently devoted to him. Currently he is a professor of economics at Seoul National University, more of a scholar and  an intellectual than of a politician.

     Up until quite recently he had never shown a scintilla of ambition for power, in acts or words, to be other than or more than what he was. Once he was offered the president of the Bank of Korea, but he did not accept it, they say. As head of Seoul National University he was somewhat different from his predecessors. He was supposed to conform to the government's educational policies, orders and regulations, but he did not comply fully with them, sometimes bringing him directly into collision with the head of the government. If he had assumed more compliant and cooperative attitude toward the government, he could have been the minister of education by now, as all his predecessors had become after finishing the office of the Seoiul National University. In every respect it seemed he was the last man to join the politics.

     For the reasons enumerated above and for his somewhat innocent, haughty or contemptuous attitude towards the worldly glory, fame and power, he was the first president of my Alma Mater to whom I had ever shown respect and felt affection. At the expiration of his term as the president of Seoul National University I sincerely hoped he would return to his former job of teaching and remain as an example and model of a true scholar and teacher to the students. Now this man stands in the midst of the arena of sharks and hyenas of politics. Personally I feel sorry for him.

     To my great surprise, I have recently found another man who is more deeply distressed by Mr. Chung Un-chan's metamorphosis than I was. On my weekly visit to Pi Chyun-deuk, former professor of English at Seoul National University, a famous poet and essayist in our country, and my mentor, the topic of conversation fell on domestic politics, and quite naturally on the presidential election and on the candidates. Although hale and hearty in his memory and spirit, physically this 98-year old man is no longer able to make his customary walk with me to the Paris-Croissant confectionary from his apartment house in Banpo, Seoul, where we used to have a long and good conversations on any subjects over a mug of hot chocolate for him and coffee for me. Now he is bound to his old sofa almost all the day listening to music from KBS FM radio.

     I told him the presidential candidates' names one by one. He knew well who they were except Chung Un-chan. When I told him who he was, my mentor looked aghast and dumb-founded for a while. He wouldn't believe it. He muttered, "If it is true what you told me, I am quite disappointed. I believed him at least, believed what he had told me...." This old man looked even sorrowful. I have not ever seen this man express his emotion so strongly before.

     Surprised by his genuine seriousness of his expression and tone of voice I could not help but ask him if there was any special reason for him to be so disturbed by Mr. Chung's political ambition. "He promised me personally not to do such a thing," said the old man. This time I could not believe what I heard. I asked him again, "When?" "When I met him at a reception arranged for me by Mr. Chung himself at Seoul National University."

     Now it dawned on me that this old man was telling a truth. Last year or the year before, a famous woman calligrapher in our country presented him a work in which the whole text of his famous essay "Ideal Woman" was written. The scroll was too large to be hung on his apartment wall and he decided to donate it to Seoul National University where he had taught so long. The University accepted this meaningful gift and hung it crosswise on the front wall of the University Library. And Mr. Chung held a reception for my mentor. At that time the old man had a very frank and intimate conversation with Mr. Chung face to face.

     He said to Mr. Chung, "You are famous or popular within the wall of the university campus, but once out of it, you are not what you are. In many ways you are the best president Seoul National University has ever had so long as I remember. When your term is over, go back to your former position with honor and cherish it." Mr. Chung, then, quite agreed at his advice without any hint of reservation. "It was a promise between us. I wish I could meet him again. Then I would demand an explanation from him."

     I laughed and said, "Sir, we were all wrong in expecting and demanding Mr. Chung to be a man of no political ambition to begin with. No man is free from it and there is no reason for him to go back to his small and shabby office after being exposed to all the glory and power as head of that huge, most prestigious and mighty institution for four years. Man wants to grow up bigger, stronger and more powerful. It is against human nature to ask him to be otherwise. He was a great politician already and proved it when he ran for the president of Seoul National University and won it."  
      (April 30, 2007)