Since the National Assembly voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye on Dec. 9, the Republic of Korea government has been void of the chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces. But life goes on in the nation of 50 million people without a major hitch.

Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is acting president, presiding over Cabinet meetings, visiting front-line Army camps to encourage soldiers and check their preparedness. He also had a telephone conversation with new US President Donald Trump to discuss overall bilateral relations. People do not seem to miss the president too keenly.

In the meantime, presidential campaigns by more than a dozen aspirants are heating up day by day, especially since the head of the Constitutional Court strongly hinted that a decision would be made on the presidential impeachment before the middle of March. Justice Park Han-chul even suggested “April or May” as a possible time for the next presidential election.

With Moon Jae-in, Ban Ki-moon and Ahn Cheol-soo forming the leading pack, the list of presidential contenders is long and endless. At family feasts during the Lunar New Year holiday, many new and old names popped up, to include Ahn Hee-jung, Lee Jae-myung, Nam Kyung-pil, Yoo Seong-min, Sohn Hak-kyu, Kim Moon-soo, Kim Boo-gyum, Lee In-jae, Chun Jung-bae, Chung Woon-chan, Sim Sang-jung, Chang Seong-min, and the list goes on.

The roster has already exceeded the record 12 names on the 2007 presidential ballot and nearly doubled the seven names on the 2012 sheet. The “dragons on the ground” are sweating in the cold to create a coalition (which they call a “big tent”) to take on Moon of the Democratic Party of Korea now making a second bid for the presidency.

The popularity of a job is usually measured by the competition ratio among aspirants for it. It is hard to understand that the presidency in this country remains so popular among our politicians, who must know all too well what has happened to past presidents, especially those six who have lived in the Blue House since 1987.

Surely, they are seeing more of the glory and power than the macabre side of the highest office. The 1987 Constitution provided huge powers for the president in keeping the framework of the 1948 basic law, which adopted the presidential system in founding a republican government to succeed a monarchy which perished under Japanese colonization.

“Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The democracy that grew here failed to secure an oversight system to prevent corruption in the top echelon. And a firm system of civilian control relieved our presidents of the usual worries of power addicts -- the threat of forced replacement by people in uniform.

So, we have created a presidency that has become increasingly unpopular among the governed but has become more and more covetous to our politicians. The field of the 2017 presidential campaign is crowded by people who claim mission and capability to prevent a recurrence of anything like the Park Geun-hye and Choe Soon-sil scandal. Regrettably, the electorate only sees hounds dashing after a sick hare.

A pollster came up with an interesting survey result last week. Moon Jae-in, the front-runner, won the highest 30 percent in a contest of support for candidates, followed by Ban Ki-moon, who had nearly 20 percent of respondents labeling him as the last to get their votes.

If we have to go to the polls in May (in the event the top court approves presidential impeachment), it would mean a game of picking one from among a lineup that had the shortest time ever to be vetted on individual qualifications. Each of them has shown great greed for power but failed to prove they really care for the nation’s lot.

Given their shallow ideas on national security, populist welfare policies, selfish stratagems in seeking alliances and coalitions among themselves and opportunism to take advantage of the incumbent’s failures, none deserve the people’s trust, the essential element of leadership. One may look better than others in one area, but then is defective in some other critical matters.

In May or in December (if the court rejects the impeachment), we will award power to an individual who would be no better than his predecessors. So what shall we do? We could vote for a candidate who promises to change the Constitution into one that reduces presidents’ authority and shortens their tenure, yet we know a constitutional amendment needs much more than a candidate’s promise. The original amendment debates were about making it possible for a president to serve a four-year term twice.

States have chosen some bizarre personalities to fill their highest offices recently, and we are afraid Korea is about to join the club. Our leader engaged in a bizarre abuse of power by excessively depending on an unqualified and unofficial aide.

When the Israelites wanted to have a king, God told Judge Samuel to warn them: The king who will reign over you will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, plow his ground and reap his harvest, will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants, take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants, will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

But the Israelites kept pleading and eventually had Saul as their king. Saul did wrong and God regretted that he had chosen him. Both people and God make mistakes in this part of biblical history. Nowadays, the people who are apt to play God realize they made a mistake when it is too late, seeing their presidents ruining what little they achieved by spawning graft in the inner circle.

Koreans share some sort of president-phobia now. The sense of hopelessness about having a good leader is so strong that people resignedly ask: What good is there in having a president? Still we watch so many politicians scrambling toward the lofty office.

Amid the hullabaloo, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon has produced a positive sign by withdrawing from the presidential race in the face of low popularity figures. I hope others will follow suit one by one, aware that a timely exit from the muddy battleground would rather improve their stature.


By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He served as head of the Korean Overseas Information Service. – Ed.