The World Cup has made Chung Mong-joon (
When I met Seiichi Ino, a famous Japanese expert on Korea, in Tokyo at the end of April, I asked him why South Korea had proposed co-hosting the World Cup with Japan. He said, "The Japanese government and media still don't know what Chung has up his sleeve. Apart from his desire to boost his own political capital and further the interests of the Hyundai Group, the Japanese simply have no idea of his real motive." His reply betrayed his sense of helplessness and disdain that Japan had been manipulated by South Korea.
Two months later, as South Korea basked in the glow of the World Cup and its crowds of Red Devil fans, Chung's name was never far from the soccer headlines. Most people know that he spent a lot of money to recruit Guus Hiddink to coach South Korea's national soccer team, that he is president of the Korea Football Association and vice president of FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) and that it was he who advanced the proposal that Korea and Japan co-host the World Cup. As a result, many people believe that he is the person who has contributed the most to the development of soccer in South Korea.
Favored son
Some probably also know that he is the sixth son of the late founder of the Hyundai Group, Chung Ju-yung.
The young Chung was his father's favorite for being the best student out of the family's nine children. The elder Chung spared no effort in cultivating him as he ensured his son enjoyed the best education money could buy and later promoted him swiftly through the ranks of Hyundai.
Prompted by dissatisfaction with the government of former president Roh Tae-woo, the elder Chung founded a political party in 1992 and ran for the presidency. Since Roh had assumed office, the nation's labor movement had flourished unchecked, bringing constant strikes, which in turn led to a dramatic rise in labor costs and a rapid deterioration in the business environment. Steep rises in production costs caused the Hyundai Group to struggle in the labor intensive industries such as shipbuilding and construction that were its bread and butter.
The elder Chung was publicly scathing about Roh, describing him as a "below average" ruler. His disdain for Roh was plain for all to see.
All South Koreans, however -- including hundreds of thousands of Hyundai employees -- treated the elder Chung's presidential campaign as a joke. As expected, he lost. To make matters worse, the incoming government of Kim Young-sam pledged to investigate his alleged use of capital belonging to Hyundai to fund his election campaign. The elder Chung was forced to make a public apology and announce his exit from the political stage to concentrate on his business.
Beleaguered by people opposing his father's political ambitions, the younger Chung had no choice but to quietly endure the ridicule, carry out his father's orders and let him make a mess in politics with his business mind. But he gained significant practical experience in his capacity as secretary-general of his father's campaign. This experience contributed much to his political development and to his outstanding performance in the world of international football.
The biggest differences between the two is that the younger Chung has a better educational background and is a careful thinker with a gentle manner. His father, by contrast, who was not educated beyond primary school and began his working life as a car mechanic, was reckless and bold, like a die-hard gambler. It is perseverance and a strong work ethic that the younger Chung inherited from his father.
World Cup dreams
It was the meticulousness of the younger Chung's thinking and the decisive manner in which, once resolved, he took action, that were the key factors behind South Korea's cohosting of the World Cup. He once borrowed the immortal line of US civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, "I have a dream," before going on to explain his motive for organizing the World Cup. The dream was finally realized after 10 years of effort, from spawning the proposal and bidding for the tournament to hiring the coach for the Korean team, scouting for players, training the team and constructing stadiums.
It is a dream which time may yet prove to have achieved many invaluable things. Within South Korea itself, it will have given the game of soccer a boost, consolidated people's patriotism and eliminated deep-rooted regional hatreds within the country. Internationally, it provided an impetus for improvements in Japan-South Korea relations by re-connecting the two peoples and getting rid of their historical feuds. It also lifted the country's flagging international status and credibility in the wake of financial crisis.
After becoming president of the Korean Football Association in 1993, he ran for the vice presidency of FIFA the following year on platform of bringing the 2002 World Cup to South Korea. His bull-like dedication to the cause mirrored to a tee his father's efforts in traveling abroad to drum up support for South Korea's bid to host the 1988 Olympic Games. In both of these endeavors the biggest challenger, after South Korea had gained support from the world's athletically advanced countries, was Japan. So it is no coincidence that it was on Japan that they both expended most of their effort.
But Chung Mong-joon was faced with an even greater challenge than his father, since his plan meant winning half the rights to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, rights that were already in the hands of the Japanese. Japanese resistance was strong and winning concessions was no easy task. Yet when, in 1996, he finally secured FIFA's approval for the tournament to be shared for the first time ever between two countries, his ever-demanding father stunned even Chung himself by asking why South Korea couldn't host the event itself, and why in the world it could only co-host with Japan.
A talented sportsman like his father, Chung won a silver medal in equestrian jumping in a national competition in 1976, and once placed fourth in the nation's cross-country skiing championships. He has fractured an arm or leg five times in competition or during training.
Though he has never played soccer competitively, Chung Mong-joon is extremely knowledgeable about the game. Since soccer is a very intense sport that emphasizes team spirit and cooperation, and which easily creates a feeling of unity between players and spectators, he believes it is the sport that best arouses a sense of nationalism.
Even so, the South Korean national team ranked 41st in the world in March last year, when it would have had no chance of joining the ranks of the last 16 teams in the World Cup finals. Chung believed, however, that there were two factors that could make the team's entry into the finals possible. The first was host-country advantage and the second was to find an outstanding coach.
Chung spent a large sum to lure Hiddink away from the Dutch national team. Chung, who had fallen for Hiddink's outstanding ability and rich experience, gave him his full trust and complete authority. His only instruction to Hiddink was that he make the South Korean team a strong team. He did not interfere in the least with Hiddink's training methods, and he turned a deaf ear to anti-foreign media demands that Hiddink be replaced.
In Hiddink's almost two years in charge of the national team, he had total control of 30 players, and he truly trained them according to the principle that you must first gain someone's trust to be able to make them follow you. The ability to build group morale is the leadership quality that Chung most admires in Hiddink, and the latter has not disappointed. Chung's efforts over the past decade, and the tacit understanding and mutual trust between him and Hiddink enabled South Korea to realize the dream of the century.
Political ambitions
Following his World Cup success, however, Chung's next dream is of course to take South Korean politics by storm.
He may continue to keep his plans to himself, but the question of whether he plans to run for president is the most hotly-debated issue in South Korean politics today. With less than six months to go before the year-end presidential elections, Chung is undoubtedly the most powerful person in South Korea thanks to the momentum he has generated with his amazing World Cup odyssey. None of the other candidates would be so bold as to underestimate him.
Indeed, the rapidly-swelling ranks of Chung's supporters testify to his potentially explosive political potential. From 1,900 members in December last year, his supporter's organization grew to 10,000 mem-bers in the four months to April. Unlike the Red Devils, the fans of the national team during the World Cup, his unwavering supporters are of all ages and from all areas. During May and June, membership grew even more as the World Cup approached its climax.
Chung's momentum was sensed at an early stage by the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), and since early this year, MDP consultant Rhee In-je has repeatedly said in public that he wants Chung to represent the MDP in the presidential election. Having not ruled out the possibility, Chung himself remains tight-lipped in response to public expressions of support, but his advisers openly reject rumors that he has decided not to run. He obviously cares even more about the direction of public opinion in the wake of the World Cup. It wouldn't be too late for him to wait to come clean about his plans until he has proof of a high level of support and can be sure of success.
Chung has entered a strategic alliance with former prime minister Kim Jong-pil, MDP consultant Rhee and Park Kun-he, daughter of the late president Park Chung-hee, to form a third force to influence the direction of the ruling and opposition parties. Whether this conservative alliance will lean towards Lee Hoi-chang, the Grand National Party's presidential nominee, or Noh Mu-hyun, the ruling MDP's nominee, will have a decisive and definite bearing on the electoral situation.
Considering his backing from this conservative alliance, Chung's power cannot be ignored should he decide to come out in competition with Lee and Noh. Even if Chung were to say that he would participate not to win, but simply because he wants to participate, treating the election as a warm-up for the next contest five years from now, participation would still be to his advantage. After all, he is still young, and that is his greatest asset.
Following the World Cup, Chung's charismatic leadership is reverberating throughout South Korea. As someone who combines the three roles of athlete, politician and businessman in his person, and who is a leader in all three areas, there is no one to challenge him -- except himself.
Indeed, he his own greatest enemy. Why? Because, coming from a wealthy family, he carries the hallmarks branded by the original sin of "nobility." How he "popularizes" the persona that this confers on him is without a doubt the greatest challenge he faces.
Rick Chu is editor-in-chief of the Taipei Times.
Translated by Jackie Lin and Perry Svensson
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