Scoop’s Views

CNN has a story that caught my eye. It says the president vowed during an unscheduled news conference over the weekend to give his full salary to public welfare, helping the underprivileged.

I was absolutely stunned to learn that the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-Bak was doing such a generous, humanitarian act of his own free will. Sure, it probably wins him good will in Korean society, much as it would in American or any other society, but that’s a moot point.

Lee formerly served as mayor of Seoul. During his term in office, he donated his mayoral salary, having it distributed among the children of street cleaners and fire fighters.

At the new conference, Lee said as president, he’s continuing his pledge to donate his salary from public office. South Korean presidents hold office for five years.

In his younger years, Lee was a CEO of an en engineering and construction company, and during that time, amassed a personal fortune. He was also known as “the bulldozer” during that time, because of his aggressive nature in pushing projects.

“I promised to spend my whole salary earned as a public official on public welfare,” Lee was quoted by the South Korean state news agency. “My plan to donate the presidential salary to the underprivileged is an extension of that promise.”

During the election campaign, Lee, 66, vowed to donate his entire personal fortune of more than 30 billion won ($30.2 million) to the poor. He said at the time he would keep only a retirement house in Seoul.

It’s a nice gesture, and certainly one that’s not mandatory. But looking at this from a political standpoint, each of the U.S. presidential hopefuls with their hats in the ring right now could afford to do the same, yet I don’t see any kind of humanitarian gesture such as this coming from any of Lee’s U.S. counterparts. For that matter, I don’t see any officeholder in the U.S. making this kind of pledge. But, to be sure no one feels slighted, Tom Knox, the former deputy mayor for current Pennsylvania governor, Ed Rendell, who wanted a $1 per year salary.