Twenty percent of Korean youth say bribery is acceptable: survey

SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Yonhap) -- A quarter of Korean teenagers say they can overlook
irregularities of leaders who make the nation richer, and 20 percent of them
would be willing to use bribery if that solves a problem, a survey found
Wednesday.
According to the survey of 1,100 middle and high school students, the majority of
Korean youth believe in honesty, integrity and observing the law, but there is
also a considerable percentage who would willingly buy wealth and success, said
the Korean branch of Transparency International, a non-governmental
anti-corruption organization.
Asked whether it is okay for leaders to commit irregularities if they can achieve
the people's economic well-being, 56 percent said "no" compared to 24 percent who
approved of the indulgence. The rest, 20 percent, remained neutral.
The relatively high tolerance toward leaders' corruption appeared to be
indicative of the 2007 presidential election, in which voters preferred economic
competency over morality as a presidential quality. Former Hyundai CEO and Seoul
mayor Lee Myung-bak was catapulted to victory over his liberal rival amid hopes
he could ensure the nation's economic revival, winning by the largest margin in
the country's election history despite lingering allegations of ethical lapses
such as real estate speculation and tax evasion.
One out of five students said they will use bribery if that helps solve a
problem, while three-fifths disapproved and one fifth were noncommittal.
Some teenagers were willing to spend jail time for money. Asked whether they
would spend 10 years in jail in return for 1 billion won (US$732,600), 18 percent
said "yes" while 65 percent would not do so.
A fifth of the respondents said they will cut in rather than wait in long queues
to see a movie while 44 percent said they may violate traffic rules when not
watched by police.
"It's an ugly idea to clamor for a good ranking in the national corruption index
without trying to improve integrity in the long-term," Kim Geo-sung, head of
Transparency International Korea said, calling for education programs to enhance
social integrity among youth.
The organization graded Korean youth's overall integrity index at 6.1 out of 10.
No comparable data was available, even though the survey was also taken in
Mongolia, Bangladesh and India. Their comprehensive results will be released in
International Anti-corruption Conference that opens in Athens on Oct. 30.
The organization released a global anti-corruption index in September, ranking
Korea at the 40th spot out of 180 countries, three notches up from the previous
survey.
The youth index survey, conducted in September, had a margin of error of plus or
minus 2.9 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent.