Roh Moo-Hyun committed suicide on Saturday. He ended his life while he was under investigation after he had stepped down as president of South Korea for allegedly taking a couple of millions of dollars in bribes. In a suicide note, the former reformist president expressed regret that he couldn't face his supporters in clear conscience. His wife was to be indicted for corruption.
That's atonement the Korean way. Roh hadn't been indicted yet. Even if he had been put on trial, he still would have had the chance of proving his innocence. But he chose suicide to avoid being shamed in public. One may prove he was corrupt. He might be called a bad president. He might even be condemned as a hypocrite reformist. But no one can deny he was a brave man who knew shame is worse than death.
The tragic death of the former Korean president stands in startling contrast with Chen Shui-bian now on trial for forgery, corruption, graft and money laundering. Our former president, who admitted he did what the law does not allow on August 15 last year when his wife's involvement in the laundering of US$21 million in two Swiss banks came to light, is playing every imaginable trick to get out of the Taipei detention center where he has been held for close to a half year. He claims his trial is illegal, has staged three brief hunger strikes to complain his human rights have been violated and gave at least one international press interview to protest the political persecution against him.
Chen cried and "trembled in fear" in court to win sympathy of a dwindling number of supporters. His other court theatrics have made supporters and opponents alike wonder aloud whether he was the reformist president who people believed would end government corruption and lead Taiwan on the way to peace and prosperity.
For whatever he might be, Chen isn't a brave man. The brave know what shame is. He doesn't. In this sense, he is very un-Chinese. In Confucian China, the literati -- government officials were all considered to belong to this social class -- were taught to opt for death rather than accept shame. The Koreans and the Japanese have learned the Confucian lesson much better than all of our corrupt government officials, for whom Chen Shui-bian is the role model.
（本文刊載於98.05.25 China Times第8版，本文代表作者個人意見）