Henry Kissinger once famously said, "University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small." When people talk about the politics of Kukkiwon, rightly or wrongly, I'm always reminded of that quote. I think to myself, "I guess the politics at Kukkiwon are vicious precisely because the Kukkiwon is an academic institution. It's a small place with a smaller budget, and everybody's scrambling for their piece of a small pie."
But what I don't understand is the phrase power grabs, a phrase that I hear all the time associated with Kukkiwon. What power is there to grab? It's not as if being near the top of the Kukkiwon is a powerful position. You're not really "in charge" of very much. It's not like being the CEO of a big corporation, or being the head of a big government agency. You're the head of a teeny-tiny little government department that's essentially chartered with international cultural outreach, something most people in the world (other than us taekwondoins) don't even know about, much less care about.
To me, clawing to be at the head of the Kukkiwon sounds about as powerful as being at the head of the National Fish Hatchery System within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- you've got a top job in some small department.
I guess it must be a Korean cultural thing that I don't understand? I guess there must be just an enormous about of visibility and prestige in Korea associated with being near the top of the Kukkiwon? Otherwise, I don't see why it becomes so controversial.
