Ex-spymaster needs to help Park communicate better
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As President Park Geun-hye tours four Middle East nations, new chief of staff Lee Byung-kee began putting Cheong Wa Dae in order.
After 46 days of searching, the President settled on her spymaster to reset Cheong Wa Dae and realign its relations with the ruling party. For Lee, 68, a former diplomat and one of the "inner circle" of political mentors to the President, it is his third job in two years.
The opposition camp cried "revolving doors," while many heads shook in wonder about whether the former spymaster was the only person in the President's talent pool who could run the presidential office.
Lee's track record in the two-year-old administration somewhat validates the President's critics, who claim she relies only on a trusted few. He was her first ambassador to Japan for about a year but was appointed to lead the National Intelligence Service last July, when allegations about the spy agency's influence-meddling prompted controversy. She turned to Lee again — at the risk of vacating the helm of the spy agency as the new nominee awaits confirmation hearings — amid alleged influence meddling and a power struggle among political aides in Cheong Wa Dae.
But on the whole, Lee is regarded positively, despite having served former presidents Roh Tae-woo and Kim Young-sam, and advised the ruling party's presidential candidates, including President Park.
Those who know him say he is smart yet cautious in words and deeds. He is also known as a sharp strategic thinker, if not necessarily a politically motivated one.
The anticipation is that Lee will be a reasonable and an effective communicator as he smoothes the ruffled feathers between Cheong Wa Dae, the ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition parties as well, without exercising an outdated, chokehold authority. There is cautious speculation that Lee might pave way for better relations with Japan. Japanese media have welcomed Lee's appointment.
Lee's challenge, however, lies in how he can reset Cheong Wa Dae so it functions with discipline but also with transparency. The new chief of staff must be able to speak directly to the President. His predecessor Kim Ki-choon's fall stemmed from his disinclination to speak directly to the President.
The chief of staff, however, is only one figure in the President's new line-up for the Cabinet and Cheong Wa Dae in her third year. She faces mounting tasks to rev up the economy, carry out four critical reforms including the labor and the public sectors and improve bilateral ties with neighboring countries and North Korea.
There is nothing innovative about the line-up here. She has tapped into her usual trusted aides and mentors and "groups of special advisers" to lay the bridge for the President in communicating with the political sector, the government and the public. But what is in place, appearance wise, is a certain structure that can allow for a more communicative administration that the public has dictated it wants after the past two years.
The key will be a political will to make it work.
janee@koreatimes.co.kr