Pardon Our Presidents!

By Tom Plate

American democracy is, sure, semi-corrupt and genetically inefficient. But it does at least one thing especially well. Its treatment of former Presidents of the United States is exemplary. This is not always true in Asia.

Let’s look at the record.

Jimmy Carter was a mostly ineffective one-term President. But he has been nothing less than a giant-killer as an ex-President. In his post-White House life, he has been driven by caring and commitment. His occasional hard-edged public comments, such as his diagnosis of racism beneath the poison directed at President Obama these days, are compass points. The former Georgian peanut farmer is a walking advertisement for the idea that the U.S. Constitution should include a device for allowing certain politicians to skip White House service completely and proceed directly to the Office 
of ex-Presidency.

George H.W. Bush Sr., the high-class pro bono ex-Pres, could go down in history as the best one-term U.S. President ever. (John Kennedy never had a full-term, and of course had no ex-Presidency.) As for his son, the other George Bush who had two terms (whoever said life was fair or just?), judgment must be withheld. The public term of the ex-President generally commences only with the inevitable publication of enlightening memoirs.

From them we learn the degree of statesmanship versus the degree of getting-even. Will W. reveal former Vice President Dick Cheney’s madly Machiavellian mind-control techniques and so on? Be patient, world: We just 
have to wait.

Bill Clinton’s eight-year presidency generally looked better with each year of George W’s. And in Presidential retirement he seems a relative revelation of deportment, not to mention national service. His recent effective trip to North Korea to fetch the imprisoned U.S. journalists should merit a nice chapter in some history of American ex-Presidencies. In fact, he should be authorised by the White House to go back to Pyongyang and give peace 
another push.

With consultation with our allies in Seoul and Tokyo beforehand (we should never, ever cut them out), Bill Clinton may have the personal diplomatic chemistry to help bring about a “Grand Bargain” on the ever-troubled Korean Peninsula. His wife, the American Secretary of State, should be ready to join him in Pyongyang if the goal of denuclearisation and formal termination of the Korean War seems 
within reach.

The ageing Kim Jong-il may be ready to settle up in order to clear the tables for his succession. There’s only one way to find out: Let’s give it 
our best shot.

Even if the gamble fails, it will demonstrate how the U.S. democracy uses, rather than abuses, its former Presidents. This is in general unlike Asian democracies where abuse is all too common. Look at the ugly tragedies in South Korea and Taiwan.

The wolves went after former President Roh Moo-hyun when he was scarcely a year out of office. He had no time to prove himself as an exemplary ex when headline-hungry prosecutors moved against him like a political hit squad. Before long, the former human-rights crusader jumped off a cliff and killed himself.

Many years before, two previous South Korean presidents did jail time. What a political tradition! I certainly wouldn’t want to be a South 
Korean ex-President!
The country’s Constitution allows its President only one term (five years) in office; thus they can start torturing him even while in office since he becomes a lame duck before you know it. By contrast, in Taiwan, as in the United States, presidents can have two full terms if re-elected – but there the trans-Pacific similarity ends.

Consider the plight of the previous Taiwan President: Chen Shui-bian had barely finished his second elected term when corralled by a court and awarded a third term: a lifetime term in jail! The charge, as with the suicidal Korean President Roh, was bribe-taking. It is certainly true that the allegation was all the less incredible given the prior conviction of his wife for perjury. So, one sheds few tears for the Chens, so-called pro-independence leaders that history may show to be more like rank 
political poseurs.

In office they seemed to spend a whole lot of time baiting Beijing on the political independence issue when not independently bribe-taking.

But one does shed a tear or two for tender Taiwan’s democracy, as well as for Korea’s. It’s sad to see an outgoing President go more or less directly to jail, or to his death.

For one thing, the sight would hardly appear to encourage the best citizens from wanting to serve. For another, it greatly restricts the opportunity for ex-Presidents to shine while out of office. So, something is definitely wrong with this picture.

For all its many faults, American democracy, in this matter, shows the better way. Asian ex-Presidents seem to get no respect, no respect at all. American ones get to continue the good work, or even prove they are quite capable of it after all.

This article ran in The Khaleej Times (DUBAI) on September 22, 2009.