뉴욕타임스 박 대통령 서투른 메르스 대응 지도자 이미지 실추
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/world/mers-tarnishes-korean-presidents-image-as-leader.html?_r=1
MERS Tarnishes Korean President’s Image as Leader
Tarnish ; (금속 등이 광택을 잃고)흐려지다[변색되다]; 흐리게
하다, 변색시키다.
----------------
? 국민을 회피하고 국민과 차단된 폐쇄적인 대통령
? 국가위기를 인지하지 못하는 불통의 대통령
? 박정희의 철권독재통치에 갇힌 이미지가 가장 큰 약점
뉴욕타임스가 12일 작년 4월
세월호 참사 대응으로 비난을 받은 후 일 년이 지난 지금 메르스의 전국 확산에 대한 박근혜 정부의 국가적 위기대응 능력 미흡으로 박근혜의 지도자
이미지가 실추되고 있다며, 비평가들의 의견을 인용하여 심층 분석했다.
뉴욕타임스는 그녀에 대한 지지도가 곤두박질치고, 침체되는 경제, 개정을 앞둔 국민연금제도, 그리고 북한으로부터 핵과 미사일 위협
같은 긴급 사안들에 나라가 직면한 상황에서, 비평가들과 정치분석가들도 똑같이 그녀의 지도력에 의문을
제기하고 있다고 전했다.
뉴욕타임스는 “그녀는 지금 같은 때에 국민에게 시기적절한 메시지를 전하기에는 너무나 느리고 폐쇄적이며, 그녀는 역대 대통령 중 가장 차단되어 있고, 국민을 회피하는 대통령으로
드러났다”는 대통령리더쉽연구소 최진 소장의 말을 전하기도 했다.
기사는 또한 심지어 박 대통령을 지지하던 한국의 강력한 보수 언론 매체조차 메르스 발생 와중에 그녀를 공격하기
시작했다며, ‘자신에 대한 여론을 반전시키는 데만 행동을 취하고, 메르스
발발 후 2주가 지나서야 각료회의를 소집한 것, 5개의 중복되는
메르스 대책위원회들이 갑자기 생겨 난 것은 효율적인 지도력 체제가 없음을 보여준다’는 비평가들의 의견을 전했다.
뉴욕타임스는 새로운 메르스 확진자가 나왔을 때, 정부는 개별 감염의
몇 가지 세부적인 사항과 확진자 수를 신속히 알렸으나, 감염 환자가 있는 병원 이름, 질병 확산의 경로, 혹은 전염의 연쇄를 막기 위해 정부가 하고 있는
일의 세부사항 공개를 거부였다며, 이러한 정보 부족은 “국민에게 공포와 불안감을 쉽게 만들어 낼 수
있다”는 세계보건기구(WHO)의 메르스 자문 연구위원인 피터 벤 엠바렉 씨의 발언을 전했다.
뉴욕타임스는 박근혜 정부는 대국민 정보공개 대신 소셜 미디어상에서 메르스 병원의 이름을 유포시킨 8명을 체포하였다고 전하고, 메르스 감염을 막기 위해 국민에게 낙타와의
접촉을 피하라는 보건복지부의 권고는 마치 한국에서 유니콘을 피하라고 요청하는 것과 마찬가지라는 비평가의 트윗을 소개하였다.
기사는 냉담한 박대통령의 이미지는 언론매체를 상대하는 것을 꺼리기 때문에 강화되어왔다며, 작년에 단 한 번, 올해 역시 지금까지 단 한 번의 기자회견을 했다며
소통 부재를 지적하였다. 박근혜는 또한 고위관료들에게 고압적이고 반대의견을 참지 못한다는 비난도 역시
받아왔다고 덧붙였다.
기사는 또한 박근혜 대통령의 자세는 국민과 가까운 대통령이 아니라 군주의 이미지이며 대통령이 되는 것이 무엇을
의미하는지 박근혜 대통령이 인지는 하고 있는 것인지 의문이 든다고 비평가의 말을 인용했다.
뉴욕타임스는 박대통령의 성장배경을 언급하며 박 대통령의 사고방식은 철권 독재통치를 했던 박정희 시대에 갇혀있으며
권위주의적이고 폐쇄된 리더쉽은 현 시점과는 동떨어진 구시대적이라는 최진 소장의 말을 인용하며 마무리 했다.
박근혜 대통령은 이미지 관리 정치가 아닌 국민과 소통하며, 대통령이
된다는 것이 무엇을 의미하는 것인지 근본적으로 다시 한번 생각해 봐야 한다.
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영어기사
MERS Tarnishes Korean President’s Image as Leader
Tarnishes
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/world/mers-tarnishes-korean-presidents-image-as-leader.html?_r=1
SEOUL, South Korea ? It used to be an often-cited story about Park Geun-hye, the president of South Korea: When her
father, the longtime dictator Park Chung-hee, was assassinated by his spy chief
in 1979, her first reaction was to ask whether there was any unusual movement
by the North Korean military along the border.
The episode helped build Ms. Park an image
as a strong leader who could keep a clear head in a crisis, and it propelled
her to victory in the 2012 election, in which she became South Korea’s first female president.
But that image has come crashing down as
Ms. Park’s government has fumbled in its efforts to contain an outbreak of Middle East
respiratory syndrome, just a year after she and her administration were criticized for their response to the ferry
sinking that killed 304 people, mostly teenagers.
With her approval rating plunging, critics
and political analysts alike are questioning her leadership as the country
faces pressing issues like a slowing economy, a national pension system
awaiting an overhaul, and nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.
“She is too slow, too closed,
to be able to deliver a timely message to her people at a time like this,” said Choi Jin, director of the Institute
of Presidential Leadership in Seoul. “She has turned out to be the most shut-off and people-averse
president we ever had. I have serious doubts about the rest of her term.”
Since the first case of the virus, known as MERS, was
confirmed in South Korea
on May 20, it has infected 137 other people, including 14 who have died. The
outbreak is the worst reported outside Saudi Arabia, where the disease
emerged in 2012. More than 3,600 South Koreans are being observed for symptoms,
and over 2,900 schools are closed.
There are also fears that the outbreak will
affect the economy. Once-bustling shopping districts in Seoul
have emptied of the Chinese visitors who are the biggest source of foreign
tourist income for South
Korea.
Department stores and theaters say that
customers are staying away. On Thursday, the Bank of Korea cut its interest rate to a
record low amid fears that the economy could slump further.
While the outbreak has exposed failings in
the country’s public health system, like
overcrowded emergency rooms, Ms. Park’s
leadership has also been called into question. Her approval rating, which hovered
around 40 percent before the outbreak, has dropped to 33 percent, according to a survey released by Gallup Korea on Friday.
Reacting to domestic pressure, Ms. Park on
Wednesday postponed a meeting with President Obama in Washington that had been
set for next week.
“Her lame-duck phase is
arriving sooner than expected,” said Kim Ji-yoon, a
political analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, citing growing questions about her
competence. “I don’t think the postponement of her U.S. trip does anything good, other
than making her look inconsistent.”
Even the country’s powerful conservative news media, which tends to support Ms. Park,
has begun attacking her amid the MERS outbreak.
Her critics say she failed to recognize a
national crisis early on and to communicate with the people, acting only once
popular opinion had turned against her. They note that she did not convene a
meeting of cabinet ministers and civilian experts on MERS until two weeks after
the outbreak began. As many as five overlapping task forces from different
government agencies have sprung up to deal with MERS, which critics say shows
the same lack of efficient leadership displayed during the ferry crisis.
As new MERS cases emerged, the government
was quick to update the numbers with a few details of individual infections.
But it initially kept other vital information to itself, refusing to publicize
the names of hospitals with infected patients, the route of the disease’s spread, or details of what the government was doing to stop the
chain of transmission.
This lack of information “can easily create anxiety and fear in the public,” said Peter Ben Embarek, a chief scientist on MERS at the World
Health Organization.
South Korean officials have instead
arrested at least eight people, including a few who circulated the names of
hospitals said to have MERS patients, after the government condemned the spread
of “unconfirmed rumors” on social media. The Health Ministry advised people to avoid
contact with camels, which one critic, in a post that went viral on Twitter, said
was tantamount in South
Korea to asking people to avoid unicorns.
Ms. Park’s image as an aloof leader has been bolstered by her reluctance to
face the news media. Last year, she only held one news conference. This year,
too, she has held only one so far ? in
January. She has also been accused of being imperious with senior officials and
of not tolerating dissent.
Official photos often show ministers and
presidential staff members reverentially taking notes while she speaks, which
some critics liken to North Korean generals’ trailing their young leader, Kim Jong-un, with note pads.
“Her leadership smacks somewhat of a
monarchy,” said Ahn Byong-jin, a
political scientist at Kyung Hee Cyber University in Seoul. “You get to wonder whether she knows what ‘being presidential’ means.”
Ms. Park’s office declined to answer questions or to comment for this
article.
Her Saenuri Party remains more popular than
the main opposition, which has been entangled in internal disputes. But Mr. Ahn
said Ms. Park’s ability to push her
domestic and international agenda could be seriously compromised because her “political capital would likely run thin” in the wake of the MERS crisis. The Saenuri Party may turn its back
against the unpopular president before parliamentary elections next year, he
said.
Some political analysts traced Ms. Park’s leadership style to her background. Her father ruled the country
with an iron fist for 18 years, and Ms. Park served as first lady after her
mother was assassinated in 1974.
After her father’s death, she secluded herself in her Seoul home for almost 18 years before she
entered politics during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
She quickly emerged as a darling of
conservative South Koreans who hankered for the charismatic leadership
associated with her father. Ms. Park, who never married, said she was “married to the nation.”
Behind that image, however, was a leader
whose “mind-set remains stuck in her father’s days, steeped in a hierarchical and closed leadership,” Mr. Choi, of the Institute
of Presidential Leadership,
said. “What we once praised as her greatest strengths
have turned out her biggest weaknesses.”
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