Born as the fifth of the seven children of a poor farm hand, he was raised in desperate poverty in a war ravaged nation, so poor that he and his siblings often had to go without food. A bright student but with no hope of completing a regular school education, he won scholarships to an evening commercial high school. During the day, he sold popcorn in front of a girls’ high school, his face blackened by the smoke from the machine.
“Every time a girl walked by and stared at me,” he later wrote in his memoirs, “my face burned with embarrassment.”
Then at the University, he took up job as a garbage collector, working during the day while studying at night. He had found himself on a government blacklist after spending several months in prison for organizing student movements protesting the actions of the then military regime.
“A nation becomes responsible forever for a young man if it blocks him from standing on his own two feet.” he told the Presidential aide who had called on him after he had written a letter to the then military ruler of the country.
After graduating he took up a job with a small company having just about 90 employees at the time. His hard work and ambition saw that after 12 years he became its CEO at the age of 36, the youngest ever CEO in a society that respects seniority and maintains a strict hierarchical order based on age. 27 years later, when he left it as Chairman, the Hyundai Group was one of the best known companies in the world with over 160,000 employees, world wide. And today, Mr. Lee Myung Bak is presiding over the world’s “hardest working nation” as its Head of State.
Each year he honors the people who had contributed significantly to South Korea’s economic development. Among his last year’s role of honor of the champions of the industry was Mr. Lee Jae Hyung, a man who started off from similar humble beginnings. And between them the establishments they head are now supporting the living and learning expenses in Korea, of a far more fortunate alien with a far inferior appetite for success.
President Mr. Lee honors CEO Mr. Lee
A tough taskmaster who effortlessly blends a no nonsense business acumen with excellent inter personal skills, our CEO had always showed the keenness in communicating with us. But his almost non-existent command over English and our own limited vocabulary of Hangeul had virtually reduced it to an ‘Anyang Hashimnika’ or a ‘Kamsa Hamnida’ or at times a ‘hello’ and a ‘thank you’. And then last week on our return from home when we went to meet him to pay our respects, Mr. Lee interrupted his business meeting and came up to greet us, with his customary charm. He invited us to have coffee with him and called up the new girl in his office, Ms. Jeni to act as the interpreter.
He enquired about our trip home and the health of our parents. He was eager to know whether we were comfortable in Korea and if we had adapted to the weather and the Korean food. And then, as has become a regular feature in our conversations with the Korean elders, the topic drifted to the social system in India.
“He had heard that there are five classes of people in the Indian society.” Jeni translated his question.
“No, Sir”, I tried to correct him, “There are four, the priests, the warriors, the businessmen and then all the others”.
“No, he says that he had read about it that there are indeed five and that you people don’t eat or drink with the lowest group, the poorest of the poor”; Jeni intervened, to our obvious discomfort.
“ Sir, you may be referring to the outcastes of India, those who are out of the caste system, the so called untouchables, the Dalits. But Sir, the system is crumbling and getting reformed and we ourselves do not show any such bias or discrimination”, I couldn’t help refuting the charge.
“He had read a book about a person from that group, who went to USA for his PhD and then returned to India and reached a very high position in Government. Do you know him?”
I couldn’t figure out who he was referring to and nodded in the negative.
“We already have had a President and a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from among the Dalit Communities and soon we may even have a Prime Minister from among them.” I made an attempt to whitewash the sins of Manu.
He got up and took out a book in Korean language from his book shelf. It was a translation of Dr. Narendra Jadhav’s Untouchables: My Family’s Triumphant Journey Out of the Caste System in Modern India.
“This is really a wonderful book, truly inspirational; you must read it when you have time” he implored us through the interpreter.
We nodded in the affirmative as we got up to take leave of him.
The trip to Trivandrum had turned out to be strangely traumatic and fanned the flames of bitterness for reasons unknown. It was highly unlikely that the Boss had read my previous post. But he had this message for us;
“Here in Hanguk, all the people are treated equal”! Jeni smiled as she translated his parting quip.
Someone somewhere was surely scheming to bring down the bitterness!
