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| Seoul National University students hold banners urging Cho Kuk to withdraw from the running for justice minister during a candlelit rally at the university on Friday. A student, left, holds a banner reading "nae-ro-nam-bul" which means "If I do it, it's romance; if others do it, it's adultery." The buzzword emerged as the embattled nominee faces various suspicions and allegations about his wealth and the legitimacy of his daughter's academic success. / Yonhap |
Buzzword emerges over contentious justice minister nominee Cho Kuk's double standards
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Justice Minister nominee Cho Kuk has become the epitome of "nae-ro-nam-bul"_ a Korean portmanteau referring to a self-righteous person's self-deceiving act.
In more familiar English terminology it means: "If I do it, it's romance; if others do it, it's adultery."
The term is used when people use a double standard when judging others but try to justify their same behavior when they face criticism.
Cho and his family's dubious past contracts and his daughter's suspicious college and medical school admissions were unveiled as lawmakers, as well as media outlets, have looked into his past to see if Cho is suitable for the job of justice minister, prior to a confirmation hearing taking place.
Before he was designated for the key job, Cho was a self-righteous man. His life, as it has been revealed, however, appears to be quite different from his description of himself.
In the past, Cho had criticized the rich for abusing the system to increase their wealth. But it turned out he was not so different. He criticized those who accumulated wealth by taking advantage of the plight of others and said the rich became richer whereas the poor got poorer in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis. Rich people's speculative investment during the economic hardship caused the widening income gap between the haves and the have-nots which consequently resulted in children inheriting their parents' socio-economic status, he claimed.
However, he is one of the rich who increased his wealth after the financial turmoil by purchasing two homes in posh southern Seoul at much lower prices.
Cho was critical of elite high schools and the parents who sent their elementary school children to evening classes to prepare for those schools. His two children both went to an elite high school in Seoul_ Hanyoung Foreign Language High School.
The justice minister-designate was critical of foreign language high school graduates who went to medical school. But his daughter followed the path that he was highly critical of. When asked to comment on his daughter's academic path, he said he chose to respect his daughter's wishes.
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| Justice Minister-nominee Cho Kuk / Yonhap |
In the past, Cho put forth an increase of needs-based scholarships and called for more scholarship opportunities to be given to students from low-income households. But he was silent about his daughter, who is from an upper-class family and yet received scholarships from the medical school six consecutive times although she got F grade in several subjects.
Cho assailed the so-called "polifessors" _ a Korean term for professors who focus more on building networks and connections to move into political careers than they do on their students ― for their opportunistic behavior.
But he himself was such a professor.
The justice minister nominee blamed greedy people but he himself is not so different from the people he criticized.
Cho was between jobs briefly after he resigned from his position as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs. He "faxed" a letter of intention to return to Seoul National University as a professor and received a salary without teaching any students.
He did so despite rampant rumors that it's only a matter of time before President Moon selects Cho for justice minister in the Cabinet reshuffles.
When facing criticism for his self-deceiving act, Cho complained he didn't understand why he had become a target, pointing out that there were many other "polifessors."
Cho is not the only politician who is characterized as nae-ro-nam-bul.
The term was first used back in the late 1990s. Former National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae is believed to be the person who coined the word. The prosecutor-turned-politician likened the then opposition party, which was annoyed about some lawmakers' switching of their partisan affiliation to the ruling party, to people who were complaining about others for their criticism.
"You're a hypocrite. You say if you do it, it's romance but if others do it, it's an extramarital relationship."
Since then, the portmanteau has been widely used whenever politicians or other people are hypocritically trying to justify their own misdeeds or wrongdoings.
Regarding Cho Kuk, however, the situation is graver than in previous cases.
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| Cho Kuk / Yonhap |
His use of a double standard came at the expense of innocent victims.
A captured image of a smartphone message written by an unnamed person familiar with the Dankook University College of Medicine team's research paper published in 2009 in the Journal of Pathology and Translational Medicine has been causing anger among internet users.
Cho's daughter is listed as a lead author of the highly technical medical paper, titled "eNOS Gene Polymorphisms in Perinatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy," which was coauthored by five others.
"Do you guys know what that paper is about?" the message reads.
According to the writer, the authors of the paper collected blood samples from 90 premature babies after getting their parents' informed consent and performed research since 2002 to figure out if there were any co-relationship between their genes and premature birth.
"What I am saying is the paper is not for a greedy individual for her fraudulent college admission," the message continues. "Would the parents of the babies have consented had they known the research paper would later be used for such a purpose? Horrible! Whenever I think about her, I cannot control my anger. Arrest Cho Min right now and let her face the legal consequences."
The captured image spread quickly online amid allegations that Cho's daughter had no such capability to initiate the research project which required a great deal of insight into and professional knowledge about the topic.
The justice minister-nominee's daughter was an intern for the Institute of Medical Science back in 2007 when she was a first-year high school student. She is said to have interned there for two weeks during the summer break, allegedly commuting from her home in Seoul to Cheonan, North Chungcheong Province where the medical school is located.
In her college essay, Cho bragged of her internship at the institute, saying her stint there had led her to become the lead author of the published medical paper.
The news reports about Cho's daughter angered the public as well as those involved in the medical field.
The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences (KAMS) said the article was not something a high school student could possibly have written, alleging that Professor Chang, who was in charge of the research project, listed Cho as the lead author as his gift to the high school student.
The KAMS board members hurriedly met Thursday to discuss the matter. In a statement, they voiced worries about the possible fallout from the paper on the reputation of the Korean medical field and said listing the high school student, who allegedly didn't participate in any of the research work, as lead author would also take a toll on the image of the country.
Some doctors say Cho being given the lead author position came at the expense of other co-authors who spent many years conducting research and compiling data for the paper.
Lim Hyun-taek, president of Korea Pediatric Association, filed a suit against the justice minister nominee for his alleged involvement in the enlisting of his daughter as the lead author in the medical paper. In a media interview, Lim said being a lead author means the person should take the initiative for the entire project from start to finish and so he suspects that Cho's daughter could not have played such a pivotal role in the research paper when she was in high school.
Cho Kuk is also facing several other legal suits over his daughter's involvement in the paper as well as her college and graduate school admissions.
