Sculminating at the press on his 100th day in office, August 17, Yoon Suk-yeol could hardly have been less charismatic had he tried. Shaking at breakneck speed through obvious political ambitions (denuclearizing North Korea, mending ties with Japan) and minor accomplishments (joining a nato meeting in Spain), the South Korean president at least kept his campaign promise not to “show off”.
This is in line with the anti-politician ploy he deployed to win office in March. His predecessor, Moon Jae-in, was a good operator with a long political career. Mr. Yoon is a gruff prosecutor who entered politics less than a year before his election. Yet as president, the schtick was exposed as a reality: his lack of political skill became a liability.
Less than a third of South Koreans view it favorably. Although many dislike his policies, especially on education and the economy, they hate the imperious way he presents them. His attempts to appear open by allowing reporters to ask him questions as he comes to work made him appear rather unprepared. Mr. Yoon is, to mutilate a practical Korean expression, soaking his clothes in a drizzle of direct errors.
This unpopularity could undermine his agenda. A perception of incompetence and arrogance makes people – and the press – predisposed to think the worst of him. Another Korean expression may apply: Mr. Yoon started sewing his shirt with the wrong button.
What Mr. Yoon needs is someone like Tak Hyun-min, the former president’s spin doctor. Mr. Tak controlled all aspects of Mr. Moon’s public persona, ensuring that each photoshoot sent the right message and that his words and actions always matched the moment. Mr. Yoon admitted it belatedly. On August 21, he hired Kim Eun-hye, a politician who was once a news anchor, as senior public relations secretary. Banyan wonders what advice Ms. Kim could give Mr. Yoon to get his presidency back on track.
One trick is obvious. Politicians are judged not just on what they do, but on how they do it. Several of Mr. Yoon’s appointments to his cabinet and personal staff have had a whiff of impropriety about them. A good part of them came from the prosecution, his former stronghold. Four of his cabinet candidates withdrew from the process on charges of nepotism, bribery or sexual harassment. On numerous occasions, Mr. Yoon skipped conventional verification procedures. His defense is that the appointments are perfectly legal. This is the answer of a prosecutor. A politician knows that the appearance of propriety matters just as much as the thing itself.
Since his fall in the polls, Mr Yoon has repeated his promise of victory to “follow the will of the people”. A second thing Ms. Kim could impress on him is that presidents should lead, not follow. His job is to make tough choices and explain his decisions clearly, something he failed to do when he moved his office to the capital at great expense to the taxpayer. Mr. Yoon has yet to even learn the basic political trick of presenting each popular policy as his own idea, let alone the much more difficult task of selling unpopular policies.
Ms Kim could also tell the South Korean president that while rushing headlong seems unprofessional and backtracking seems inept, doing both is the mark of an amateur. Mr Yoon could have explained that he did not meet Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, when he visited Seoul after a trip to Taiwan earlier this month. Instead, he faced criticism by phoning her at the last minute. Similarly, an announcement in July that children would start school a year earlier was so unpopular that the responsible minister, Park Soon-ae, was forced to resign. The briefest of consultations would have predicted the backlash.
Mr. Yoon had a bad start. He’s not just unpopular. He also faces an opposition-controlled parliament and does not fully control his own party. He has already reshuffled his personal office and has yet to fill the important posts of health and education ministers. He would do well to bring in not only competent, scandal-free people, but also people outside his immediate inner circle, which would help broaden his support. And he will have to act quickly to win over the public. With a single five-year term allowed by the constitution, South Korean presidents have little time to build a legacy. Hence the last and most important advice, which repeats all the previous ones: learn the rules before you break them.
Read more from Banyan, our columnist on Asia:
The growing importance of the Indian Ocean worries the countries located there (August 18)
How not to administer justice after a brutal civil war (August 13)
Is Bongbong Marcos’ early pragmatism a paradox or an illusion? (August 4)