After Chung Mong Koo, chairman of Hyundai Motor and son of its founder, was arrested in 2006 amid one of South Korea's recurring corruption scandals, I called a friend in the company's public relations office. He answered in a breathless panic. Without Chung in the driver's seat, he assured me, the management of South Korea's largest automaker would be adrift.
Social commentator Roman Roland once opined, "In politics, the boss is always money." Elections are often nothing more than a rich man’s game, playing with money for the right to make more money – a recipe for corruption. To put an end to political and commercial ties, the only solution is comprehensive constitutional reform. The heads of the four government branches should be elected in alternating years, and elections should be free of charge for all candidates to end the symbiotic relationship between government and corruption. See the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.
