Last week, former President Lee Myung-bak’s memoir, “The President’s Time,” was No. 10 on Kyobo Bookstore’s overall bestseller list and No. 1 in the politics/society division. I didn’t help its sale because an associate of the author sent me an autographed copy. 

The 800-page book is a record of Lee’s and his aides’ “collective memories” rather than the 73-year-old ex-president’s narrative of personal sentiments. Media reactions were less than generous as it contained few surprising revelations about what happened during his five-year tenure, still disclosing some sensitive matters in the relations with North Korea. Closing the book, one might think his rollercoaster approval rates ranging from as low as 7 percent to a high of 50 percent were unfair.

Naturally enough, the memoir painted the picture of a better president than generally thought. Yet, it failed to show Lee Myung-bak as a human being. In an appendix released with the book, Lee’s former press secretary who led a team of researchers and writers explained that his boss wanted to make it a textbook for future leaders.

“We believed a president’s memoir should offer readers a glimpse into the president’s hidden thinking, his anger and sorrow, his pains and delights. We are sorry that this book does not provide that kind of flavor to the reader,” Kim Doo-woo said for the memorial publication team. Lee ignored his aides’ advice that a president’s memoir needs to reveal the human side of the man. Instead, he only wanted a record of how he worked at the Blue House, and the results.

The appendix introduced an interesting scene in one of the many “editorial meetings” Lee held with his former secretaries, ex-Cabinet ministers and others to discuss what to replenish and what to cut in the original draft. Those top policymakers in the Lee administration often contended with each other in reviewing their respective roles in major government steps as if they were still in office.

Kang Man-soo, ex-finance minister: The draft solely credits the Foreign Ministry for successfully bringing the G20 summit to Seoul, but I think it is not correct.

Lee Myung-bak: Well, Ahn Ho-young (assistant foreign minister) played “Sherpa” while Shin Je-yoon (ex-assistant finance minister) also did his best along with Sakong Il, Shin Hyun-song, Lee Chang-yong …

Kim Dae-ki, ex-senior economic secretary: Now is the age to tear down the wall between diplomacy/security and economic affairs.

Kim Sung-hwan, ex-foreign minister: Yes, convergence is the call of the times.

Kang Man-soo: At the time of the Cheonan sinking, the Foreign Ministry believed Russia and China would support our position, but they did not. The Foreign Ministry also made a mistake by referring the incident to the U.N. Security Council, which I opposed. This, too, failed.

Kim Sung-hwan: The UNSC president’s statement denounced the attack, though it did not specify who did it.

In another such session, some suggested that Lee make a candid explanation about his visit to the Dokdo Islets and his demand for Japanese Emperor Akihito’s apology prior to his official visit to Korea, actions that supposedly caused the extended freeze of ties between Korea and Japan. Yet Kang Man-soo asserted that the president was not to blame because he rightly exercised Korea’s sovereign rights. Lee concluded that “we do not have to be apologetic about it.”

Aside from such episodes, it was like reading excerpts from a presidential archive. Lee said he would leave the final appraisal of his presidency to history. But chapter after chapter, Lee and his ghost-writing aides offered self-vindication to criticisms of his actions and inactions at each time of emergency, namely the popular protests against U.S. beef imports, the global financial crisis, the North Korean torpedo attack on the Cheonan and the bombardment of Yeonpyeongdo Island.

Lee Myung-bak’s own assessment of his time from 2008 through 2013 appeared in the titles he suggested for the memoir. “From Minor League to Major League” was the first candidate title proposed by his economic aides. Lee counter-proposed the following: 1) “No crisis that can’t be overcome,” 2) “Five-year president makes 10-year plan,” 3) “President was my calling,” 4) “Love, the foundation of all policies,” and 5) “Seeing hope from despair.”

Turning down these “self-assertive” titles, the aides chose the neutral words of “The President’s Time,” which they agreed best reflected a hardworking head of state in times of recurring crises. They happily recounted the better-than-worst 0.2 percent growth in 2009 and the beyond-expected 6.3 percent growth the following year during Lee Myung-bak’s time.

The memoir did not convey any particularly hard feelings of the past government’s team toward the present leadership. Lee only regretted his failed effort to scrap the plan to relocate administration offices to Sejong City in 2010 due to the rejection by then-ruling party chairwoman Park Geun-hye who had “unfounded worries” about his political maneuver to dump her as presidential candidate in favor of Chung Un-chan.

The four-river refurbishment, overseas resources development and green growth programs are all but forgotten or being mentioned by the opposition as ammunition for attacking the government while the present administration dissociates itself from the so-called MB projects. The five-year segmentation of national development plans is undesirable but may have to be endured under the present presidential system.

The problem is that loyalists of the retired and incumbent presidents still form the two main factions in the ruling party to keep distance between them. Yet, Korean politics, though contentious and unproductive, has arrived at a stage where individual differences do not necessarily shake the system in either the conservative and liberal sectors and between the two established camps.

Lee Myung-bak is exceptionally healthy after a lung ailment in 2009. He would not think that publishing a biography is all a retired president can do besides playing golf. Unfortunately, he has no role model domestically but there are many retired leaders outside the country who are actively engaged in philanthropic services, gaining genuine public respect that they might have lost while in power.

In a few years, Lee will be followed by another retired president, and yet another will join the club five years thereafter (if the present Constitution is retained). It is pleasant to imagine this new breed of ex-presidents doing meritorious services to the nation outside the realm of politics for many years in this age of longevity. Then they can write subsequent, more readable memoirs.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. ― Ed.