Is authority must-have virtue for president?

The presidential election campaign has heated up by a TV appearance of nonpolitical potential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo. He has neither joined a party nor declared he will run. Yet he has been steering the race with Park Geun-hye, according to opinion polls.

Ahn apparently hasn’t shown a clear will toward politics and his socio-political inclination is not clearly exposed, either favoring the ruling or opposing camp, conservative or progressive. There is seething controversy among established politicians, mostly negative over his attitude and capability. The great part of them doubt Ahn as a potential presidential candidate saying, “He is just a dangerous political amateur,” “an arrogant aristocrat” or “too naïve.”

Park Geun-hye, the clear favorite from the ruling Saenuri Party, who has already announced her presidential bid, is positioned in an antipode. She wields absolute domination in the party by exerting great influence in every election. She has never lacked confidence in her determination, no matter that it might have created an image of lacking intercommunication.

Distinct contrasts between the two, are seen as flexibility versus firmness, male versus female, modesty versus authority and intercommunication versus insistence. The former has been a doctor, a developer of antivirus software, a CEO and a professor, continuously changing his profession and challenging new fields. Meanwhile he has never set foot in the jungle of politics. The latter, on the other hand, was born as the first child of Park Chung-hee, the most distinguished president in Korean history and served as first lady after her mother was assassinated. Performing the duty of an assemblywoman, she was appointed to chairwoman of her party and even nicknamed “Election Queen” as many election victories were credited to her influence.

Then how can these contradictory images be defined by saju reading.

Authority is fundamentally interpreted by the career star, while other features, such as flexibility or communication can be connected to knowledge and expression stars. The traditional requirement of politicians or leaders in general has been the career star, by which people estimated the power and reputation of the person. It is still part of the primary framework in reading the life of global leaders nowadays. This is, however, changing and mingling gradually by the transition of the social environment. We can see a coexistence of the career star and knowledge or expression stars in modern leaderships.

A comparison of the saju of Park and Ahn may reveal some interesting analysis.
The day master is portrayed by yin wood in the saju of Ahn. Yin wood would rather bend than break despite it being recognized as a delicate flower. Pliability can be a prompt association of the yin flower. Ahn has internal strength to show confidence by taking root in many other wood elements.

Now if you look at the saju of Park, she was born with a yang earth day master. It usually represents stability, having self-respect and fidelity to its own principles. But earth people are inflexible and sometimes lacking consideration for others.

Referring to the structure of their saju, what we can figure in Ahn’s is the knowledge and some expression stars stored in the wood elements. Without having a career star or metal elements in existing letters, he may seem irresolute for the absence of charisma. There has been no formal statement, such as a public declaration of his candidacy. People without career stars tend not to comply with conventional procedures. On the contrary, the career star or power energy is the major stream in Park’s.

A strong leadership or authority may still be a priority requirement to determine the presidency. However it is undeniable that the current tendency calls for altered leadership, who can say “I may be wrong.”

It will be intriguing to watch how Ahn copes with established politicians if he runs and how Park responds to the public’s needs. <The Korea Times/Janet Shin>

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