Here’s a good tip for the three presidential candidates that is sure to add at least a hundred thousand votes, quite a figure in this very close election: Declare that, if elected, he or she would decline the secret service protection upon retirement after the mandatory single five-year term.

This may not be in compliance with the Law on the Treatment of Former Presidents and the Law on the Presidential Security Service, but legal matters can be fixed when any president-elect so decides and does not change his or her mind during the term of office. 

Renouncing the security privilege will have a significant appeal to the electorate as they are currently watching the cumbersome process of the independent counsel investigation into alleged improprieties in the purchase of land to build the retirement house for President Lee Myung-bak. The embarrassing affair, after all, stemmed from the need to secure enough landsite for facilities to be used by a security outfit to protect the retired president.

President Lee had first considered moving into his old house in Nonhyeon-dong in the upscale Gangnam area of Seoul on the morning of Feb. 25 after passing his duties to whoever would be elected on the Dec. 19 election. The Presidential Security Service had to secure a house adjoining the president’s to accommodate the security detail guarding him but the owner of the targeted property would not sell.

As the Blue House explained it, the presidential family with the help of the PSS began searching for a site in the suburban areas with enough space for the security force and they chose a half-acre (2,142 square meters) land in Naegok-dong, Seocho District, divided into several plots. About a third of the property to build the president’s retirement home was bought in the name of his son Si-hyung and the rest in the name of the PSS.

What primarily disappointed the people when the media exposed details of the land purchase last year was the realization that the presidential family had followed the usual pattern of property deal a crafty real estate businessman would have taken and most law-abiding citizens would have avoided.

Acting on a complaint from some civic groups, prosecutors uncovered a few improprieties in the land purchase. Si-hyung, a 34-year-old employee, bought the land with about 600 million won loaned from the NH Bank putting his father’s old house as collateral and another 600 million won borrowed from his uncle. The uncle’s loan was allegedly delivered to the young man at Cheong Wa Dae in cash by the uncle’s wife. Although the plots are adjoined, Si-hyung’s portion was about four times cheaper than the part for the PSS.

Now, the independent counsel team is chasing the real source of the money used for Si-hyung’s purchase. Yet, the Naegok-dong affair has eventually been dissolved as the president gave up moving to a new home after retirement and decided to return to the Nonhyeon-dong house. The presidential office bought the land purchased in the name of Si-hyung to use the whole plot for a yet unknown public purpose in the future. However, the queer way of purchasing the land rekindled a host of suspicions about the president’s personal finance.

Five years ago during the previous presidential election campaigning, political opponents made issue of who was the real owner of the BBK, an investment firm accused of stock price manipulation, auto parts maker DAS represented by the president’s brother and brother-in-law, and a plot of land in Dogok-dong, Gangnam, which was sold to POSCO for a high price. Regardless of the result of the independent counsel investigation, these questions will again be surfaced in our society that has proved not too generous for retired presidents.

Considering all these circumstances, it still looks hardly appropriate to attach a platoon of secret service agents to protect the person of the just retired president and his family from Feb. 25, 2013. At the moment, it is unlikely that President Lee himself would seek any change in the current security arrangements despite now unavoidable spatial restrictions around his old residence in Nonhyeon-dong.

We now have three ex-presidents living in Seoul. Two of them, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, were deprived of presidential pension because of their criminal conviction on rebellion and bribery charges but they are provided with police protection around their homes in Yeonhi-dong, western Seoul. Kim Young-sam’s Sangdo-dong home is also guarded by police 24 hours a day. The Law on the Presidential Security Service requires the PSS to provide security service for former presidents for seven years from their retirement “unless it is declined” by the protected. After seven years, police offer the service “for necessary periods,” interpreted by the authorities as “for life.”

An opposition National Assemblyman who recently proposed a bill to end security service for ex-presidents Chun and Roh estimated that operating the special police units guarding the two men needs additional costs of 1.6 billion won ($1.45 million) a year. Rep. Kim Jae-gyun asserts that there is no justification to spend that much taxpayers’ money and cause so much inconvenience to their neighbors to protect them who still owe the state 167 billion won (Chun) and 28 billion won (Roh), respectively, in fines.

If the cost of operating security service is a burden on the state, the presence of whatever size of security personnel around ex-presidents and their family members should pose significant interference with their privacy. As a democratically-elected president who presided over national economy with medium success, Lee Myung-bak must not fear public enmity as much as his two ex-general predecessors do. Financial scandals involving his close associates and relatives are causing people’s anger but not quite the level that would require a platoon of troops to separate him from the public wherever he goes.

Thinking of the three presidential candidates, I would rather like to imagine any one of them on an outing in Seoul streets sometime after 2018 accompanied only by the spouse or friends without having their leisurely stroll harassed by secret service agents. Truthfully, the Constitution guarantees ― and the state is obliged to provide ― the same public security for a former president as for any law-abiding citizen of the republic. If this sounds too idealistic, we can produce a solemn maxim for the presidential candidates: Only a bad president will need good security arrangements after retirement.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik, former managing editor of The Korean Times, wrote editorials for The Korea Herald for over 10 years. ― Ed.