Trying to find an excuse will only backfire

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Trying to find an excuse will only backfire

Published: 05 Nov. 2024, 19:28 Updated: 08 Nov. 2024, 10:31

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

With just one day before President Yoon Suk Yeol’s address to the nation on Thursday, many people must have mixed feelings. They will certainly pay keen attention to the speech, as the presidential office said, “The president will closely explain about all the issues the people are curious to know.” But his past speeches mostly disappointed the public.

Let’s go back to the speech the president delivered shortly before the Apr. 10 parliamentary elections. Over his puzzling plan to increase the medical school admissions quota by 2,000 annually, people expected him to adjust his stringent position on the increase after watching a deepening medical vacuum from the collective walkout of trainee doctors across the country. But the president adhered to the increase, saying his administration reached the number after “a careful calculation to meet the growing demand for future doctors.”

The president went on to say, “If the medical community presents a more reasonable solution, my administration can discuss it.” But the general public only sensed his stubbornness to not surrender to mounting public pressure against the increase. According to a white paper delving into the reasons for the governing party’s crushing defeat in the legislative election, “a sense of despair prevailed among candidates of the People Power Party after the speech. They lamented that any campaigns won’t help their election victory.”

Yoon’s speech on May 9 to mark the second year of his presidency invited strong resistance from the majority Democratic Party (DP) after Yoon demonstrated his strong reluctance to accept two DP-proposed special motions to investigate the suspicious death of a Marine and the alleged power abuse by the first lady. That’s not all. In a speech on Aug. 29, the president self-praised “the clear signs of an economic rebound” and “the smooth functioning of our emergency medical system.” Over the controversial special treatment of the first lady when prosecutors summoned her for questioning, the president sided with the prosecution.

If the president acts the same way this time, his crisis will deepen. Yoon must focus on reflecting on the scandals involving the mysterious power broker and his wife rather than on expounding on his government’s achievements. The president must manifest his willingness to cooperate with the prosecution’s probe of the power broker and let his wife stop all official activities. If he wants to find an excuse, it will backfire.

Yoon must reshuffle the presidential office and change his governance style. He must listen to diverse voices of the people, not his loyalists. We hope he shows a difference in Thursday’s speech.