With the people

What is a good slogan for the new government to be led by Park Geun-hye, who will be inaugurated as president on Feb. 25?

I suggest that it should be “With the people” in English and in Korean “국민과 같이.”

The suggestion comes from my interest in Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, and his famous Gettysburg address. Here is how Abe’s ideas could be of value to Park.  

During a dedication speech on Nov. 19, 1863 for a cemetery for fallen soldiers, Lincoln talked about a “government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

It took two more years before Robert E. Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox Court House ended the U.S. Civil War.

Lincoln’s 150-year-old definition about the relationship between the government and the people has long since been established as a cornerstone of democracy.

However, being absorbed in bringing about peace, Lincoln may have missed something important in his short address.

I suggest what’s missing is “With the people”. But we can’t blame Lincoln, if he accidentally failed to include “With the people.”

First of all, he probably didn’t imagine that his 270-word speech would become so well known. Secondly, he said the words when he was uncertain about how and when the war would end. Thirdly, he was saddened and felt responsible for a period of terrible carnage in the short history of the republic that is the United States of America.

In this hectic moment, all Lincoln could rely on was the people, who were at that time divided into unionist and confederate camps, so he was in dire need of appealing to North and South.

This appeal was perhaps captured by his definition of government that, by today’s standards, sounds so sentimental that it borders on irresponsible.

Democracy has struggled on for 150 years since that afternoon in the Gettysburg cemetery and evolution is long overdue, such as amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

My “amendment” proposal is including “with the people” in a spirit of responsible sharing.

In other words, government of, by and for the people can’t entirely account for the fact that today’s democratic government belongs as much to the governed as to the governing. When the two parties work in harmony, it means a model democracy that reflects people’s need for governance and effective institutions.

For Park, the “With the people” slogan could be of value in two ways.

As leader of Korea, a modern democracy, she needs the slogan’s burden-sharing spirit to give the people a sense of ownership and responsibility much like a shareholder with unlimited responsibility.

To that end, the conservative president-to-be should address division within the nation by reaching out to the 48 percent of Koreans who didn’t vote for her in the Dec. 19 election. In essence, the “With-the-people” slogan could be taken as such an invitation. <The Korea Times/Oh Young-jin>