One knows that lawmakers are notorious for peddling influence. Taking advantage of their privileges like legislative power and right to audit government offices and public enterprises, they often seek favors -- for them, their constituents, supporters and financial sponsors -- from government officials, businesses and others.
Nowadays there is a growingly trend in the lawmakers’ influence-peddling: They don’t have qualms about exerting influence regarding education and jobs for their children.
The latest such case involves Rep. Shin Ki-nam, who allegedly attempted to rescue his son who failed the graduation exam of the Kyung Hee University Law School in Seoul.
Now there are some minor differences between what Shin and school officials say, but what is certain is that Shin paid a visit to the dean of the school two days after it announced the list of eight students who failed the exam, thereby losing the chance to take the bar exam. Shin also met the deputy dean at his National Assembly office a few days later.
Media reports quoted school officials as saying that Shin asked whether his son could be given a second chance and suggested that he could play some role for inducing authorities to increase the ratio of law school graduates passing the bar exam from the current 50 percent to 80 percent.
Shin insisted that his visit was not meant to pressure school officials and that as a parent, he just wanted to see what the situation was. He also said that he is not in a position to affect the way the bar exam is conducted.
One knows that school officials would have thought otherwise, all the more because Shin, himself a lawyer, is a veteran lawmaker who is in his fourth term. Nor do we think that Shin is telling the truth.
The Shin scandal came after two lawmakers -- Reps. Yoon Hu-duk and Kim Tae-won -- allegedly used their influence to get jobs for their lawyer children. Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan was also involved in a controversy over a former intern who landed a job at a public corporation.
These cases not only raise questions about the ethical standards of lawmakers, but also deepen frustration, despair and anger of a young generation whose life is so hard that they coin such terms like “golden spoon,” “silver spoon” and “earthen spoon.”
Many people, especially those born with the earthen spoon in their mouth, will closely watch how the ethics body of Shin’s party, the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, deals with the latest in the string of cases of apparent unlawful influence-peddling, which spoil not only their children, but also society.
