Roh Vents as Problems Pile Up

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 5/21/2003 | Shin Jung-rok (jrshin@chosun.com)

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Roh Vents as Problems Pile Up by

President Roh Moo-hyun, after saying he was "uneasy" and "depressed" in an interview with the Munhwa Ilbo last month, said Wednesday at an official appearance that he was beginning to think he would be better off not being the president. “Recently, the problems I’ve been facing are too difficult,” said President Roh as he met at Cheong Wa Dae with the organizers of last weekend's ceremony in Gwangju to mark the anniversary of the May 18 revolt - the organizers had come to express their apologies for the disturbance that marred the event. “It is not just this [the May 18 event]. It is inevitable that the nation’s functions have become paralyzed, because everyone is trying to resolve things with their strength. A president cannot concede to everything. With all this strain I am beginning to think I can no longer be the president.”

Roh went on: “Even the teachers union holds their opinion and rejects the nation’s functions. So what meaning does the opinion-gathering and decision-making process have? It is not a matter of personal emotions. If this situation continues, I feel I will not able to perform my duties as president properly.”

Explaining the circumstances leading up to the Gwangju incident, Roh said, “I was informed that there was a picket demonstration and I ordered that it be left alone. The roads would be congested, so I made a detour. I only did that because I didn’t think it would look nice if I restricted the event and went through it. But things turned out unexpectedly.”

The president's remarks may seem an expression of fear that labor is driving him into a corner and frustration with the many crises that have racked the nation, such as the freight labor union strike, the May 18 event, the teachers union’s struggle against the NEIS system and the civil servants' vote scheduled for this week. Never before has a Korean president expressed his distress in such a public way at the beginning of the term.

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LMAO!! Can you believe this pansy!?! He admires Lincoln, and yet he acts like Jimmy Carter. What a weak moron. Typical whine from a liberal commie. South Korea is going to be in trouble for the next 5 years with this pansy at the helm.

[gcruse]

So what meaning does the opinion-gathering
 and decision-making process have?

Roh  mistakes appeasement for leadership.
Opinion-gathering is trying to ascertain which
direction the parade is going so that one can
run out in front of it.

Decision-making is a leader determining where
he wants to parade to go and getting the marchers
to follow him there.  He won't always be right.  The
leader afraid to make mistakes paralyzes himself
into inactivity.  But doing nothing is a decision, too.
You can't always win, you can't always break even,
and you can't get out of the game.  You lead.
Korea has elected a bureaucrat, not a president.

[jagrmeister]

Roh is a wimp. He cannot handle domestic matters nor foreign matters. He is a liability in our dealing with North Korea and he is selling out the interests of the S. Koreans with his bend-over-backwards approach to Pyongang.

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Roh is South Korea's Jimmy Carter.

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Roh doesn't even know how to spell "leadership," much less demonstrate it!!