SEOUL, South Korea ? Five years ago, South Koreans began calling a number in Britain in droves. They were trying to sway an international phone poll to name Jeju Island in South Korea ? a verdant spur of volcanic rock famous for its fresh air and succulent seafood ? one of the “new seven wonders of nature.”
South Koreans, from then-President Lee Myung-bak to schoolchildren, pitched in. On Jeju Island alone, government officials voted up to two million times a day on their office phones, generating $20.3 million in phone bills.
But Lee Hae-gwan smelled something fishy. Mr. Lee, a union leader at South Korean’s main telephone company, heard from fellow workers that their employer was handling the calls locally, even as it charged South Koreans millions for calling Britain.
Mr. Lee blew the whistle ? and paid for it. Over the last four years he has endured a suspension, a transfer, a pay cut and being fired. All, he says, were the result of his whistle-blowing.
His plight ? which ended only this year, when he won his job back ? demonstrates why South Korea is having trouble getting inside executives and officials to call out wrongdoing, despite a broader push to uproot corruption.
“I would do it again,” Mr. Lee said. “But if my children or friends ask me what to do in the same situation, I would not encourage them to do as I did. You pay too big a price.”
Corruption is becoming a pressing issue in South Korea as economic growth slows and its people begin to demand higher standards from their leaders and big companies. After a string of corruption scandals that implicated prosecutors and judges, opposition parties are calling for the establishment of an independent agency to investigate graft among senior public servants.
A new law went into effect in September that, among other things, bans public servants, schoolteachers and journalists from getting free meals worth more than $27 to prevent conflicts of interest. Meanwhile, prosecutors are increasingly examining the conduct of corporate executives.
Crucial to those efforts, say supporters, is empowering whistle-blowers. Already the government encourages tattling by camera-toting bounty hunters who collect evidence of petty crimes as well as serious infractions like bribery. The Horuragi Foundation, a civic group, and others are lobbying Parliament to extend coverage from current whistle-blower protection laws, which are not as broad as in the United States and elsewhere.
But the groups expect progress to be slow because of broad political gridlock as well as entrenched attitudes toward whistle-blowers, especially among government officials and corporate executives.
“They do whatever it takes to find an excuse to expel whistle-blowers,” said Lee Young-kee, a lawyer who heads the Horuragi Foundation.
South Korea’s past military dictatorship spawned a rigidly hierarchical office culture that made whistle-blowing difficult. With “loyalty to the organization” upheld as a key value, whistle-blowing was seen as an act of betrayal. Rules were routinely ignored in the name of meeting management goals, but few spoke out against colleagues because life in the office revolved around hometown, family and school connections, reinforced through nepotism and late-night wining and dining.