Kim Seong-kon, Professor of English Literature, College of Humanities

Reading my previous column titled"Things that make us sad," readers sent me some insightful, intriguing feedback that amused me. A young female reader wrote me:"But there are also other moments when we are very sad. For example, when we find no milk in the refrigerator as we are about to eat cereal or chocolate chip cookies, it saddens us. When an appointment is unexpectedly canceled right after we have finished applying our tedious, time-consuming make-up, it saddens us too."

Older readers shared their perspectives as well and added to my short list of sorrows. Among them was a former ambassador who lamented, saying,"I think our ex-presidents make us sad too. Isn't it sad that each and every one of them is sneered at and derided? Not a single one has been hailed as a great leader." I could not agree with him more. Some countries have great statesmen such as Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Bismarck, not to mention Lincoln and Kennedy. Other countries are blessed with great poets and playwrights as their leaders such as Leopold Senghor, the Senegalese president, and Vaclav Havel, the last president of Czechoslovakia.

In Korea, however, it appears that every president we have had has fallen short of our expectations, resulting in citizens' resentments towards our leaders. Considering the various derogatory remarks and deriding jokes about our ex-presidents, it seems we have only had fools and imbeciles to lead our country. Among the many jokes is the well-known"drivers series," which compares each president to different types of drivers. According to the latest version, Rhee Syngman, the first president of South Korea, was like a driver who had an international driving permit that had been acquired from a foreign country. Since it was only a permit, it was to expire very soon. Thus Rhee tried to prolong its date of expiration through illegal means and as a result, was forced to leave the country on the verge of deportation. Park Chung-hee, who had seized power by a military coup, was compared to a tough, speeding driver whose recklessness on the road unwittingly harmed many people. Choi Kyu-ha briefly sat in the driver's seat but was not allowed to drive because his license was revoked immediately after its issuance. Chun Doo-hwan, who also came to power by a military coup, was described as an unauthorized driver who had kicked the official driver out of the moving vehicle and had taken over instead. His successor, Roh Tae-woo, was said to be a driver without a license. This simple description of his reign in office obviously described Roh's incompetence in running a country.

The leaders' comparisons to drivers did not become any better with the start of the civilian government. Kim Young-sam, who was responsible for the so-called IMF (1997-98 financial) crisis that almost left the South Korean economy bankrupt overnight, was like a clumsy, uninsured driver who had caused a major traffic accident at an intersection called the IMF. Kim Dae-jung was referred to as a drunk driver who was intoxicated with his debunked daydreaming of unification that gravely endangered his credulous passengers. Roh Moo-hyun was said to be a notoriously careless driver who drove on the wrong side of the road, passed through the red light, and consequently crashed and totaled his car, seriously injuring his bewildered passengers. Koreans do not seem to expect much from current President Lee Myung-bak either, predicting that he will likely turn out to be another disappointment.

Although it is indeed disheartening not to take pride in your nation's leaders, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. So we can just laugh about those jokes and let them go. Riding a bus named"Korea," however, we realize that our safety depends solely on the reliability of our driver. If this is true, perhaps we need to be more selective when electing our president. First, we need to closely examine their driving skills and check for excellent vision so as to ensure that issues are seen clearly. Before we hand over the key to our nation, we also need to verify that the candidate has the proper license to drive a large vehicle and the strong sense of responsibility as a public transportation driver.

We should then require our presidential candidates to submit their TOEIC or TEPS scores to highlight their English proficiency. How could anyone be an able diplomat if he or she cannot speak fluent English? Besides, if you want to be a first-rate international driver, you should be able to read all the traffic signs and instructions written in English.

It would truly be unfortunate if every president that has led our country had bad driving records. We hope this is not true for the future drivers of our nation. As we improve the screening processes for obtaining a driver's license, perhaps someday we will be able to have a truly great leader whom we could be proud of.