"The citizens are the mayor": The personal legacy of Park Won-soon

"The citizens are the mayor" as Mayor Park Won-soon would repeatedly remark during his countless speeches domestic and abroad, and I feel it greatly sums up his servitude as the Mayor of Seoul for his third and last term which lasted almost a decade. As the longest serving Mayor of Seoul, he was definitely not your average, anachronistic Mayor.

By Andrew Yongwoo Lim
(photos tentative)

"The citizens are the mayor" as late Mayor Park Won-soon would repeatedly remark during his countless speeches, domestic and abroad, and I feel it greatly sums up his servitude as the mayor of Seoul for his third and last term which lasted almost a decade. As the longest serving mayor of Seoul, he was definitely not your average, anachronistic mayor.
It was his engagement with the citizens that truly stood him out. In every opportunity he would get, whether it be conferences or his numerous outings, he would engage with the citizens, leaning in and listen to every word that the citizens have to say, carefully articulating his responses, and would utilize these everyday lessons to lay the foundations of his citizen-centric policies.
As a man ahead of his times, he was able to fuse administrative policies with high-tech ICT solutions. I can fully recall his moments especially during the numerous mayoral and high-profile delegations that visited his office, from Los Angeles to Guangdong. With his energetic tone of voice, he showcased one of his crown projects, the Digital Mayors' Office, another one of his innovative tools that allows the displaying of over thousands of real-time datasets at a fingertip within a user-friendly, state-of-the-art screen in his office, resulting in data and evidence-based policy decisions. Data was the key, he often remarked, and sought out the streamlining of all available data across multiple departments into one neat compatible database. Yet above all, it was the pinnacle of his garland of servitude: With access to data, "The Citizens are the Mayor."
Another one of his citizen-centric policies was the revamping of space in the basement of City Hall as a Seoul Citizens' Center. He provided access to those who sought it most, from weddings, exhibitions to just a place for citizens to hang out and share ideas and exchange knowledge. He would sometimes make impromptu visits, making sure to have the citizens' voices heard on a personal level. "The citizens need a place to congregate and to share their ideas," he would remark. Indeed, the citizens are the mayor.
As the fourth industrial revolution started to take shape, he took another initiative in compartmentalizing the paradigm of citizen-centricity and bridging the digital divide. Hence, he initiated the creation of the Seoul Digital Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to "construct a digital Seoul for the happiness of the citizens." Many of its programs focused on bridging the digital divide, from education and training programs for the citizens to facilitating the creation of jobs in the digital sector through the fostering of ICT start-ups and SMEs. It also advanced a program to instill a sense of authority for the citizens by having a citizen-led evaluating committee. Citizen-centric indeed, as "the citizens are the mayor."
Park has dedicated his life to public service and for the enhancement of key democratic principles, especially during times when such notions were unheard of, starting from serving as a public prosecutor to a human rights lawyer, taking on high-profile and trend-setting cases.
As one of the demonstrators during the so-called Democracy Movement during the Park Chung-hee era, he has sowed the seeds of the democratic movement in Korea and witnessed the fruits of his own labor in having the seeds blossom into a fully-functioning democracy today. But what truly set his life apart was his engagement with the citizens. He acted as a chaperon of sorts, a messenger to the citizens, a truly accessible mayor to the public.
My experience with the late mayor had implications so profound in my life that I too became a champion of citizen-led policies and to give it my all in making Seoul a better place to live. It was his policies and work that allowed me to engage in sharing and exporting Seoul's key ICT and smart city projects to the world, from Kampala to Tashkent, thus helping resolve urban problems as well as to create jobs here in Korea. Thus, with his initiative, the Seoul Smart City Export Consortium was born, of which I was proudly part. It was this call to action, the conviction to resolve urban challenges through citizen-centric policies and Seoul-led technology that allowed me to be awarded the Seoul Honorary Citizen, bestowed upon those who showed extraordinary commitment to the betterment of Seoul, personally awarded by the mayor himself. (refer to subtitle of picture "and this inspires me to work even harder")
"The citizens are the mayor!" As Park would often say to me. He emphasized the participation of the citizens and championed key aspects of a true democracy, from transparency, accountability, civic participation to the freedom of speech.
We shall continue your work in serving the public, to ensure that the citizens continue to remain as the mayor.
You will be sorely missed, but never forgotten.

The writer is research and innovation attache of the Government of Quebec in Seoul.