May 25, 2009 NYT
SEOUL, South Korea — As South Koreans laid white chrysanthemums at makeshift memorials for their former president, Roh Moo-hyun,many said Sunday that the once-popular champion of clean government hadbeen driven to suicide by more than humiliating bribery allegations.
They directed much of their ire at the prosecutors and conservativemedia who relentlessly pursued the accusations of corruption againstMr. Roh and his family. Many accused the current president, Lee Myung-bak, of orchestrating the investigation, a move that could become a political liability for him.
Others expressed deeper misgivings that Mr. Roh was a victim of thelegacies of South Korea’s authoritarian past — most notably the nearritual of incumbent presidents presiding over investigations of theirpredecessors.
“It has become a bad political habit for presidents in South Koreato try to gain support by punishing the former president,” said KangWon-taek, a politics professor at Seoul’s Soongsil University. “Whathappened to Roh Moo-hyun shows that it is time to break this habit.”
The tendency to define a presidency by the failings of the one thatcame before took root as the country struggled to redefine itself inthe early 1990s as a young democracy after years of dictatorships. ManyKoreans were exhilarated as the first democratically electedgovernments punished the men who had resisted democracy for so long.
The sight of former President Chun Doo-hwan — a military rulerblamed for a crackdown of pre-democracy protesters that ended in 200deaths — being paraded in a prison jumpsuit proved cathartic for thenation.
But political experts, and even many average Koreans, say that theirnation’s struggle to shed its authoritarian past was never finished,and that investigation of Mr. Roh highlighted at least two otherlegacies: a powerful presidency and a justice system with few checksand balances, especially on its prosecutors.
At least so far, the subject of Mr. Roh’s culpability has been putaside, overwhelmed by the shock and sadness over his dramatic death onSaturday, when he threw himself off a cliff. In the weeks before that,he acknowledged that a businessman who supported him had given morethan $6 million to his wife and son and his brother’s son-in-law whilehe was in office, but he denied that they were bribes. He said he didnot know about the transactions until he left office.
The money for his wife had been used to pay for his son’s tuition at Stanford University,among other things, according to a top aide. In a country whereeducation is key to social status, Mr. Roh, a self-educated lawyer,never won full respect from many people, despite having become a lawyerand the leader of a powerful economy.
Much of the outpouring of public anger since Mr. Roh’s death hasfocused on the murky ties between the Blue House, as the president’soffice is called, and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which led theinvestigation into Mr. Roh and other former presidents. Thesesuspicions are also a hangover from the pre-democracy days, whenprosecutors were seen as military henchmen, using the legal system toattack their political opponents.
“The prosecutors have become the most omnipotent force in Koreansociety today,” said Moon Chung-in, a political scientist at YonseiUniversity in Seoul and former adviser to Mr. Roh. “Their strength is alegacy of dictatorship that still affects us.”
Mr. Moon said that Mr. Roh actually ended up strengthening the powerof prosecutors by weakening one check on their power: the NationalIntelligence Service, the South Korean spy service used by militaryrulers against South Korea’s citizens. Mr. Roh appointed a former humanrights lawyer as its director and curtailed many of its internalsurveillance activities.
Mr. Roh also tried to rein in the prosecutors, but with lesssuccess. Though he weakened links between prosecutors and the BlueHouse, he failed to pass some of their powers to the police or creategrand juries to oversee investigations.
In 2003, his first year in office, Mr. Roh also held a widelywatched public debate with 10 prosecutors in which he called theprosecutors office a “powerful organization” that the Justice Ministryhad “failed to rein in.”
Mr. Roh also came to office with promises to break the cycle ofcorruption that has plagued South Korean presidents, and made themvulnerable to investigation. He also vowed to curtail the powers ofSouth Korea’s presidency and sever its links with the country’s“chaebol,” or big-business conglomerates.
Mr. Roh’s death unleashed a renewed wave of sympathy for a formerpresident who had alienated many supporters by signing a free-tradeagreement with the United States and seeming to bungle economic policy.
Many of the thousands who turned out at makeshift altars in front ofan ancient palace in central Seoul seemed to feel that Mr. Roh had paidtoo high a price for a relatively petty infraction.
Many noted that Mr. Chun and his successor as president, RohTae-woo, were found guilty of accepting hundreds of millions of dollarsof bribes while in office. Sons of the first two civilian presidents ofthe era, Kim Young-san and Kim Dae-jung, were also imprisoned forpocketing millions of dollars from large companies.
The mourners lashed out at the prosecutors and the conservativemedia who had relentlessly pursued accusations of corruption for thepast year, after Mr. Roh had left office. Most also accused the sittingpresident, Mr. Lee, of guiding or at least encouraging theinvestigations. In Mr. Roh’s native village, Bongha, his supporterstrampled a funeral wreath sent by the president.
“President Roh was not just another corrupt president. He wasdifferent,” said Lee Dong-joon, 31, an insurance planner. “But LeeMyung-bak is acting the same as the dictators. Our democracy has beenset back 30 years.”
The former president, who had prided himself on being above SouthKorea’s corruption, could no longer eat or focus on his favoritepastime of late-night reading, said aides. In his suicide note, Mr. Rohapologized for disappointing supporters.
Political scientists said the suicide could cause a backlash againstPresident Lee or even the prosecutors. Mr. Moon, the former Rohadviser, said the National Assembly might formally investigate theprosecutors, and the apparent press leaks of questionable allegations,which increased the pressure on Mr. Roh.
“Let’s see if this breaks the cycle of political vendettas” againstformer presidents, Mr. Moon said. “But we won’t know for sure if thevendettas are over until 2012, when Lee Myung-bak steps down.” Somesupporters who gathered in Seoul said they thought the opposite wouldhappen: that Mr. Roh’s suicide almost guaranteed that the currentpresident would also face similar attacks once he leaves office.
