Is South Korea still a corrupt nation?

Chung Soung-jin, The Korea Herald, Asia News Network, Seoul

A trainer chains an infant elephant to a formidable post. As the elephant grows stronger, the iron chain is replaced by a rope. The animal has now grown strong enough to break the rope but it no longer resists what it first knew as a chain.

People also tend to look at themselves with past standards without recognizing how much they have progressed. A case in point is corruption in Korean society.

It may be too much to expect Koreans to believe our society has become so transparent. After all, they are reading about many large-scale corruption cases in the media. No wonder some even argue there is now more corruption than before.

But can we say that because more corruption cases are publicized by the media, the more corrupt society has become? And is it fair to say that Korea is now less transparent than under the rule of autocrats, when newspapers were more prone to report feel-good news?

Few will deny the current administration has worked hard to prevent corruption and stop collusion between businesspeople and politicians. How many political events do we witness that could not have occurred under authoritarian rule?

Now the press and general public are free to censure the government for actions which they regard as misguided. Prosecutors feel no outside pressure when indicting corrupt politicians and businesspeople, as they did in the past. In recognition of this effort, the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy said in its 2004 Asian Intelligence Report:

"Corruption today in Korea is probably no worse than it has ever been. In fact, the problem might even be less. The difference is that national institutions are stronger today than before. They appear to be doing their job, and if they keep up their anti-corruption efforts, politicians and big businessmen will get the message sooner or later and start changing their ways.

The public is becoming so intolerant of corruption that corrupt officials can no longer hold on to their public positions.

Public service has also changed since the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption began evaluating the integrity levels of public-sector organizations and a code of conduct for public officials was established. Last month, senior officials in a government agency pledged to "go Dutch" when they had a meal with guests. Moreover, fewer public officials give or receive gifts, which were considered some sort of kickback. Ironically, we're now in a situation where, during the last Lunar New Year holiday, the government had to encourage "gift-giving" as a means of stimulating economic recovery.

The political arena, once a main source of corruption, has also undergone sweeping changes. After three major political laws - the political party law, the election law and the political funding law - had been enacted, the general elections last April were held in an unprecedentedly transparent manner.

More importantly, President Roh and 40 representatives from the political, public, private and civil sectors gathered on March 9 to sign a social pact on anti-corruption and transparency.

What about the public's view? According to a survey of average citizens announced on Feb. 22 by another daily, about half of the respondents said corrupt and the cozy relationships between politicians and businesses had declined, with a mere 9 percent saying they had been rising.

Of course, it would be naive to say Korea is as transparent as advanced nations. However, shouldn't we acknowledge that, as a result of sincere efforts to control corruption, the Korean society is increasingly becoming transparent? As President Roh once said, "the elimination of corruption represents a hurdle Korea must surmount in its march toward becoming an advanced country." If that is the case, we should first know how far we have traveled on that march.

The writer is chairman of the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption.