Anticorruption crusader in spotlight

Folksy and straightforward, corruption watchdog chief Lee Jae-oh is far removed from bureaucratic inertia and ostentation.

The 64-year-old man normally rides a bicycle to work but recently shifted to taking the bus and subway due to the cold weather.

The chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission lunches at cheap restaurants and urges public servants to eat meals as cheap as 5,000 won ($4).

Since his inauguration in late September, not a single day has passed without him visiting citizens and public servants to hear their voices first-hand.

Late last month, he helped resolve years-long development disputes in two southeastern cities by brokering between residents, authorities and construction firms.

The former Grand National Party lawmaker is also a speaker on a wide-range of themes beyond his responsibilities.

When news was flooded last month over secret contact between the two Koreas for a possible summit, he called for transparent negotiations. He also voiced opposition to a hotly-debated proposal to abolish elite high schools specializing in foreign languages.



His actions have met both praise and criticism.

His supporters say he exemplifies what a public servant, especially of the Lee Myung-bak administration, should be.

President Lee has publicly switched priorities to the welfare of the poor and the vulnerable. The president himself has led a campaign to reform the bureaucracy, encouraging officials to meet citizens directly and to develop practical policies reflecting reality.

But critics doubt Lee Jae-oh`s intentions. Some say Lee, once the most powerful man in the ruling Grand National Party, is using his current post to launch a future political comeback. Some public servants complained about his idealist arguments, for example the 5,000 won lunch, which is rarely found in the downtown area.

The former lawmaker is regarded as a man who reads President Lee`s mind the best.

Though nearly one and half years have passed since he left politics, he is still called the president`s right-hand man. Some derisively billed him the "little president."

Before entering politics, Lee Jae-oh was a renowned dissenter who was jailed five times for fighting against dictatorship.

He and President Lee were among the leaders of student protests against then President Park Chung-hee`s normalization of diplomatic ties with Japan. Both were imprisoned due to the massive demonstrations.

Lee Jae-oh then became a civil activist and led a progressive political movement. In the mid-1990s he joined the then conservative ruling party, which is now the GNP, and was elected as a National Assembly member three times

He was undoubtedly the closest ally of Lee Myung-bak. His boss, who cut his teeth in business, lacked a power base in the GNP. Lee Jae-oh strived to help him consolidate in-house support, become the presidential candidate and win the 2007 election.

He crisscrossed the nation on a bicycle to promote Lee Myung-bak`s key campaign pledge to build a nationwide network of canals.

Often called field commander of the Lee campaign team, he was at the forefront of struggles against political rivals in and outside the party.

Belligerency cost him politically, however. He resigned in November that year from the Supreme Council for his offensive remarks about the president`s archrival Park Geun-hye.

He failed to make a political comeback in April 2008, losing to rookie Moon Kook-hyun in the parliamentary elections.

After the humiliating defeat, he left for Washington in May that year to study security issues on a graduate program at Johns Hopkins University.

After the self-imposed 10-month exile, he returned home in March. He was appointed head of the agency anticorruption on Sept. 30.

Lee has since demonstrated his strong commitment to the protection of civil rights and fight against corruption.

In speeches, meetings and testimonies to the National Assembly, he said integrity and transparency are the very basis of national development and anticorruption efforts are still imperative for the overall advancement of Korean society.

But many believe he will eventually come back to political scene. His return may occur in July next year when a by-election will be held in his constituency.

His former rival Moon recently lost his parliamentary seat after he was convicted of violating election laws.

Lee himself said late last month that he may not fulfill his term.

The possibility of his comeback is behind the high sensitivity of opposition parties and his rivals in the GNP toward his words and actions.

Last month, Lee was bombarded by opposition parties after he proposed to institutionalize an anti-corruption policy consultation of his agency, the police, the prosecution, as well as the audit and tax offices.

The Democratic Party chided him for overstepping saying that he was trying to revive a much-criticized meeting of law enforcement agencies in the past authoritarian era.

(jjhwang@heraldm.com)



By Hwang Jang-jin