1979, Manager Kim is Inheriting Dictatorship! - Chapter 52



Only Krnovel

Episode 52

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A strict crackdown on corruption began in public institutions, starting with the police, prosecutors, and customs.

And this problem, although temporary, had a negative impact on public opinion.

“No, Chief! Why can’t I do that?”

“Ah.. well! I can’t do that! If I get caught this time, I’ll lose my balls!”

“This is contraband. It will be confiscated.”

“How much money have I given you so far! This is really going to happen.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know! I can’t get over it like I used to!”

The government’s approval rating, which was over 90%, has now fallen to the mid-60% range.

Many people are starting to feel uncomfortable because problems that could be solved by giving a little money are no longer happening.

‘There’s a need to change public opinion…’

There was a need to convince the people.

I decided to tackle it head on.

We decided to share stories that had not been agreed upon in advance with many citizens through live broadcast.

A total of 30 people from all walks of life were invited as representatives, including the self-employed, civil servants, laborers, housewives, students, and the elderly.

The location is outdoors behind the Blue House.

We began our conversation with the public through a live broadcast across the country in a comfortable atmosphere.

“Ah.. ah.. are you doing well?”

When I ask if I’m doing well, the cameraman taking pictures gives an OK sign with his hand.

I said hello to the camera and the people sitting in front of it.

“Hello. This is Kim Jung-guk. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk with me today.”

Everyone looks around here and there in amazement at the sight of the Blue House for the first time.

“Haha. When we’re done, I’ll give you a tour of the Blue House, so would you please focus on me now?”

Only then did everyone stop looking around and look in my direction.

“You all came here today because of the bill I am promoting.”

“”yes.””

“I know what you are worried about. That is why I have gathered people from all walks of life today. Please feel free to ask questions while I speak.”

I continued speaking in a slightly serious voice.

“As you know, the reason I invited you is because of the bill that is scheduled to be legislated this time, the Fraud, Corruption, and Crime Property Confiscation Act. And the current administration has also greatly strengthened the crackdown on fraud, corruption, and crime. However, I also know that it is controversial. That is why···.”

Then someone raises a hand.

I pause for a moment and give him the chance to speak.

“Yes. Go ahead.”

“Thank you. Hello, Mr. President. My name is Tae-ho Kim and I run a small construction company. Can I ask you one question?”

“As much as you want.”

The person asking the question is a middle-aged man who appears to be in his 50s.

Although he is called the CEO, he is someone who has been in the field for a long time, so his whole body is covered in scars.

“I am building small commercial buildings and villas mainly in Gyeonggi-do and Seoul. However, during the construction process, when we try to get a permit for something, nothing happens unless we pay the government officials.”

“Hmm.. please continue talking.”

“Of course I know this is illegal. But if we don’t do this, the government officials won’t even think about taking action. And it’s the same with banks and other places. I can’t even tell you how many times I have to buy meals for my employees to get one loan.”

The man’s voice trembles as if he is crying over something.

“If a bill is passed and excessive crackdowns begin, they will probably be reluctant to take money. Then, even if I don’t give them money like I do now, I wonder if they will still do their job properly.”

He finishes speaking and sits down.

I picked up the microphone and answered his questions.

“I heard you well. Mr. Taeho, I also have a question. Mr. Taeho, when you build a building, do you build it properly?”

“What does it mean to build it properly?”

“For example, do you ever steal materials or do shoddy work?”

The man answers in a slightly angry voice.

“What are you talking about, Mr. President? Even though our company is a small construction company, we are not a gangster company that builds buildings so shoddily.”

The man seemed proud of the building he was building.

I smiled and calmed him down.

“Haha. Calm down. I’m not saying that Taeho’s company is like that. I don’t think the practices Taeho mentioned earlier will disappear all at once. It’s common not only in government agencies but also in private companies like banks, as Taeho mentioned.”

I continued speaking in a serious voice.

“But isn’t it time for us to start rooting out these things? As I said before, they don’t disappear all at once. That’s why I think we need to start even faster.”

It took longer than expected for volume-based garbage bags to become established in the 90s.

Before, people just threw away their trash, but when they started paying to throw away their trash, of course people didn’t like it.

Of course, it is difficult to simply compare illegal drunk driving and bribery, which are still illegal, with trash problems, which were not legally problematic in the past, but the important thing is that it takes a long time for awareness to take hold when these laws are changed.

That’s why it was necessary to start as soon as possible.

“If Mr. Taeho’s company, despite being much better at building buildings, were to lose out in the competition because he paid more bribes or was closer to government officials or someone else, wouldn’t that be more unfair?

I believe that now, people who live properly in the Republic of Korea should not suffer injustice. If Mr. Taeho is a construction company that builds buildings properly, then there is no need to worry. I promise you that.”

As the story ends, another man raises his hand.

“Mr. President, I am a mobile driver living in Seoul.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“I understand that the President will strengthen crackdowns on drunk driving along with the passage of this bill.”

“Yes, that’s right. In the future, traffic enforcement, especially drunk driving enforcement, will be much more stringent than before.”

The man sighs and speaks.

“Honestly, people like us who make a living by driving have a drink with lunch and drive while intoxicated. But if the crackdown on drunk driving gets this much more severe, aren’t people like us just going to die?”

It was partly the man’s fault, but that was the level of awareness of drunk driving at the time.

It was a time when there was almost no thought that anything was seriously wrong.

And there was an underlying perception that there was no problem drinking and driving.

“Mr. Dong-sik, do you often drink and drive?”

“Yes..? That.. that..”

“Mr. Dong-sik. Mr. Dong-sik, do you think that it doesn’t matter how many glasses of soju you have while driving?”

“Yes! Of course. It’s been years since I’ve been driving and eating… and for a few glasses of soju…”

I stood up and guided him to the podium.

“Mr. Dong-sik, would you like to come out for a moment?”

“yes..?”

“It’s okay. Come on.”

A man comes up to the stage with an anxious expression on his face.

“Would you like to try this?”

“This is···.”

What I handed over was a half-empty bottle of soju.

The man hesitates for a moment and then pours the entire bottle of soju down.

Then, after having him sit down on the chair next to him on the stage, he waits for about 10 minutes to let the intoxication wear off while talking about something else.

After 10 minutes, he is guided to a white line prepared in advance on the stage.

“Mr. Dong-sik, you said earlier that you can drink half a bottle of soju without any problems. So, would you like to try walking straight on this line?”

“This little thing… is nothing.”

A man walks a white line.

And after a while, he arrives at the end of the white line and speaks to me with a proud voice.

“Have you seen this? Even if you drink half a bottle of soju, there’s no problem!”

The man shouted confidently, but strangely, the expressions on the faces of the people sitting there were different.

“Have you seen this? A person can get this drunk just by drinking half a bottle of soju. Of course, some people may get a little less drunk or a little more drunk, but how can you drive properly when you can’t even control your own body like this?”

“What are you talking about, Mr. President?”

“Look at what’s stamped on the floor.”

When he looked back, there was a mess of paint next to the white line.

I clearly thought I was walking straight, but in reality, I was not.

From the moment you start walking two steps, you have already started to go out of line.

And that was proven by the still-dry white paint.

“.. .. .. .. ..”

He eventually returned to his seat without saying anything.

After that, I had many conversations with people.

And after the long conversation of about three hours, I made one last request to the people who were watching the broadcast.

“Citizens. Those problems that seem trivial now may come back to you as a painful knife. Drunk driving may one day lead to the death of our brothers, children, and parents. Also, the money we give and receive, which we often call affection, will eventually slowly make our society sick.

Citizens, a change in consciousness is not something that can be achieved in a short period of time. We are no longer the Republic of Korea of ​​the past. Let us now move forward to a Republic of Korea that will not be a shame to our descendants. I trust you, citizens. So, citizens, please trust me too. I beg you. Thank you.”

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Fortunately, public opinion, which had been shaken a little after the live broadcast of the dialogue with the people, found its place.

In particular, the sight of a man staggering while drinking once again reminded the entire nation of the dangers of drinking.

The approval rating for the government, which had fallen to 60 percent, eventually returned to the low 80 percent range.

However, the number of National Assembly members leaving the party has accelerated.

The final number of people leaving the Korean Party is 43.

The number of seats held by the Korean Party has increased to 204.

Fortunately, since there were so many successful candidates, the remaining seats alone are more than half of what is needed to pass the plenary session.

Even the opposing opinions within the party began to converge to some extent after the broadcast, as the opposing opinions almost disappeared.

There seemed to be no problem with the bill passing, as the opposition party said that they would leave the vote to individual autonomy rather than formally oppose it.

However, the problem arose in an unexpected place.

“Stop it no matter what!!”

Defecting lawmakers and opposing opposition lawmakers block the main chamber of the National Assembly.

As lawmakers try to push their way into the main conference room, they desperately try to block them.

The idea is to take advantage of the fact that you can’t vote if you can’t enter the plenary hall.

This was the raw appearance of the National Assembly before the National Assembly Advancement Act.

The party asked for help from the police, but I told them to leave them alone.

“Mr. President. Can we really just leave him alone? He looks like he won’t back down until he dies.”

“It’s okay. Rather, if we deploy police forces, they might frame it as suppressing the National Assembly.”

“Then what should I do? Do I have to keep watching him act like this?”

“How could that be? Mr. Choi, please contact all the reporters and broadcasting stations you know. We need to show the public their true colors.”

It has already lost both its justification and its reason.

For them, they had to do what they were most afraid of.

It’s about instilling fear that you won’t be re-elected.

[The National Assembly has not been able to process any bills for three days due to lawmakers opposing the bill blocking the plenary session hall. What on earth is their justification for blocking the plenary session hall?]

[Among the lawmakers blocking the plenary session hall of the National Assembly, the representative is Rep. Kim Seong-jun, who is currently under investigation on bribery charges. Is it possible that the reason he opposes this bill is because of his bribery charges?]

[In front of the National Assembly, many citizens are protesting today, criticizing the lawmakers who are blocking the main conference hall. I hope they will hear the voices of the citizens.]

As the days passed, the opposition lawmakers who had been desperately holding on to their positions began to rise from their seats one by one.

The local office started to turn around, and it seemed like if he continued to hold the position, re-election would be absolutely impossible.

“Sorry.. I’ll go first.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Congressman Kim. I’m going too.”

“Representative Huh!! Representative Kim!!”

Congressman Kim Seong-jun tried to catch them somehow, but they were already far behind.

They were people who got together because of their own money.

There was no such thing as loyalty.

Eventually, the blocked door begins to open, and the plenary session begins.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“232 in favor, 103 against, abstentions… The Bill on Fraud and Corruption Confiscation has passed.”

“272 in favor, 272 against… The bill on punishment for fraud crimes has passed.”

The bills were finally passed with the Speaker of the National Assembly declaring them passed.

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“This is a crackdown on drunk driving. Please blow on it.”

“Hey… please just let me have it this once. I only had one drink.”

A middle-aged woman with a red face pleads with the police.

But the police’s attitude was firm.

“No, please hurry up and break it.”

“Oh, boy..”

The woman eventually has no choice but to comply with the crackdown.

The result is a license suspension.

“0.24 percent. That’s a license suspension level. Please show me your license and get out of the car.”

“I told you I didn’t drink much···.”

“Please give me your driver’s license and get off.”

A middle-aged woman hands me her driver’s license and slips a ten-thousand won note behind it.

Normally, they would only give 5,000 won, but they doubled the amount after hearing that crackdowns had been strengthened recently.

She thought that this would be enough to get by.

“I’m going to go now. Thanks for your hard work.”

The woman starts the car and tries to drive away.

Then the police officer put his hand through the open window, turned off the engine, and took the car keys away.

“What are you doing!”

The police officer says as he throws money into the car.

“If you don’t get off, you will be arrested for obstructing official duties. Get off quickly!”

“No, if you give me ten thousand won, I’ll let it go!”

“Didn’t you see what the President said last time! Our country needs to get moving now! How long are you going to give us ten thousand won and get away with it! Get down quickly before I arrest you by force!”

As word of the arrest comes up, a woman gets out of the car, realizing that something is very different about the situation than before.

“You… are making a mistake! Do you know who my husband is close with? He’s on good terms with this neighborhood’s congressman, Kim Seong-jun!”

“Is that so? But do you know that Assemblyman Kim Seong-jun has become a total duck egg in the Nakdong River after leaving the party this time? Assemblyman Kim Seong-jun was caught drunk driving this time, and when he called our chief, he was completely ignored. The news will probably be out tomorrow.”

“That.. that.. ah please just let me see it once! I won’t do it again.. okay..? Okay.. please I beg you···!!”

The woman was begging with both hands, but the police officer’s attitude was firm.

Not everything will change at once, but it will change one by one like this.

The change in consciousness that would only begin to occur in the next 10 years was already beginning to change little by little.

Things that had been overlooked as good things in the name of love while pursuing only growth were now changing.

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“Mr. President, Congressman Kim Sung-jun keeps contacting me, asking to meet him just once. What should I do?”

During a meeting of senior secretaries, the senior secretary for political affairs asks President Kim a question.

“Okay. Don’t answer his calls anymore. Why would you answer a call from someone who’s going to jail soon?”

“Yes, I understand. From now on, I will ignore calls from Representative Kim Seong-jun’s office.”

The senior secretary for civil affairs is secretly very pleased.

I was already annoyed by the calls coming in every day, but it felt like a huge burden had been lifted.

“How are the Olympics being prepared? Where are the other countries applying?”

The Chief of Staff to the Foreign Minister, who is resting due to illness, answers.

“We are preparing hard, centering around the President of the Five Kingdoms. And it seems like Spain will be our strongest opponent in the finals.”

“Spain.. The current IOC president is Spanish, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The biggest enemy in hosting the ’92 Seoul Olympics, not the ’88 Seoul Olympics, was none other than Spain.

As history changed, we hoped that Spain would not participate, but as expected, Spain participated.

‘It won’t be easy after all…’