U.S. President Donald Trump / EPA-Yonhap



By Oh Young-jin





To the distressed Americans, here is a deal.

Why don't we borrow your President Donald Trump for a while?

A majority of Americans object to the Trump presidency. Polls show he was the most unpopular head of state upon taking office. And he was also about 3 million popular votes short of the also-ran Hillary Clinton in the presidential election.

Apply the democratic rule of plurality and it is clear that Trump may use the door shown him by his detractors.

By liberal accounts, Trump represents the opposite of what American values are about, as a racist, sexist, egotist, liar, orgy lover, "bromantist." He ordered an entry ban on Muslims; objectified women by ranking them on a scale of one to 10; insisted on the "alternative fact" that his inauguration crowd was larger than that for his predecessor President Barack Obama; harangued on Buzzfeed leaking a lurid intelligence briefing detailing alleged Russian surveillance footage of him in a Moscow hotel room; and showed his readiness to share the bed with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Despite all these flaws, we need Trump as a hired leader.

The hope is that the billionaire will emulate what Guus Hiddink did for our team during the 2000 Korea-Japan World Cup football championship. At the time, the nation ran out of Korean coaches ― not just for their subpar skills, but for their scattered loyalty due to school ties, regional backgrounds and other factors rather than the players' performance.

The Dutch coach was invited and given a blank check in selecting players and strategies.

It worked wonders. Team Korea made it to the final four, an unprecedented miraculous achievement that appears impossible to repeat.

The nation's politics of now resemble the pre-Hiddink period.





Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Moon Jae-in / Yonhap



President Park Geun-hye is awaiting the verdict of the Constitutional Court on an impeachment case against her for delegating power to her confidant Choi Soon-sil, extorting chaebol together with her and allegedly undergoing cosmetic treatment during a national emergency in which hundreds of children were trapped in a sinking ferry.

Park pleads innocence and argues about a liberal conspiracy against her, bringing the nation to a virtual standstill in an effort to bring her misdeeds to light. If the nation has a Pandora's Box, it feels totally empty with even hope having escaped.

Even for Trump, it would be a daunting task. Chaebol are found to be corrupt, paying billions to Park and her ilk. The de facto leader of Samsung, the nation's top global tech firm, is accused of buying a million-dollar horse as gift for the equestrian daughter of Choi, Chung Yoo-ra, to cement his control of the business empire. Ewha Womans University, once a prestigious school, has had its top officials arrested for giving favors to Chung in admissions and grading.

With the expected exit of Park, an election is due in the next few months but no game changer is in sight. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea is likely to be a shoe-in because of the shallow field of candidates that was made even thinner after former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ended his half-baked three-week run as a candidate for the presidency.

Moon is a reasonable man who lost to President Park in the previous election. But he has shown little ability to make things exciting, an element pivotal to cheering up the nation stuck in a severe collective case of depression.

Besides, Moon appears to be a man still living under the shadow of his friend, former President Roh Moo-hyun. Enigmatic is his vision for the country, if he becomes president. Would it be an extension of Roh's presidency, albeit only milder?

Moon can't escape blame for the failure of President Park's government as an outstanding member of the opposition whose mission is to keep power under the leash.

He has been spared from the public wrath, shown by the massive candlelit protests, which had targeted the entire political establishment but fell midway by punishing Park and conservatives.

Despite being the personification of controversy, Trump has an agenda ― change. His anti-Muslim executive order could be seen as an act to deliver on his promise to protect terrorism-fearing Americans; his hammering of big corporations as an act to bring jobs back to jobless Americans; his tussle on the price of the F-35 joint strike fighter, the next mainstay of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corp. as an act to protect tax-paying Americans.

His change agenda is what Korea also needs.

People would argue it is beneath the national dignity of Korea to have a foreigner as a national leader. Legally, that is impossible, they would say.

But listen to ourselves cursing out on Park, Choi and the state of the nation and you can't but come to the conclusion that we don't have a leader among ourselves. From the standpoint of a "consumer democracy," it doesn't matter whether it's a black or white cat, as long as he or she runs the nation and serve the people well. Don't you want to see a repeat of our 2000 World Cup achievement… in politics?

Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' chief editorial writer. Contact foolsdie5@ktimes.com or foolsdie@gmail.com.