Roh and Ah-Bian

Roh and Ah-Bian, both was former president of their respective country. Both shares a lot of similarities; they were from hardcore poor farmer families, studied hard to become lawyer, actively involved in human right movement in their younger days, rose to become the president of their country where corruptions and cronyism were so prevalent, pushed for political reform and fight against corruption and sadly, both also ended up being investigated for corruption after stepping down as president.

I was saddened by the news of Roh committed suicide a couple of days ago. He must be truly disturbed by the ongoing investigations on the corruption link to a businessman while he was in office. He and his family members were reportedly accepting bride amounting to US 6 million dollars. Perhaps the corruption charges were truly shameful to Roh, so unbearable that he decided to finish off his life by jumping down from a high cliff of about 100 feet while doing trekking.

It was a tragic end of life of an ex-president. But he set himself apart from his contemporaries with high dignity although his image was tainted by the corruption charges, but who can be sure that those still living a luxurious life after stepping down from high government office are as “clean”? Look at Ah-Bian of Taiwan, despite of strong evident suggesting that billions have been swindled out of Taiwan when he was in power, still playing up so many political tricks even in detention to paint himself white.

Despite the similarities between Roh and Ah-Bian, the only thing set them apart is their feelings of shame.