My Peninsula 2007

Chapter 481 is risky.

To view a politician's greed solely in terms of their desire for money and wealth is undoubtedly a narrow-minded and simplistic view. In reality, the greatest desire inherent in a politician's nature is always for power, and no one is an exception in this regard.

For no other reason than that, power is always more useful and practical than money. After all, in human society, money ultimately represents wealth itself, while power represents the right to distribute wealth.

Most importantly, Li Minbo is not short of money. On the contrary, the wealth he controls, or rather the wealth controlled by his family, is not an astonishing figure, but it is probably beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Therefore, An Rusong would never be naive enough to think that if Li Minbo wanted to start a polling agency, he would be after money.

Since his goal is not money, then it must be power. As the current president, he will formally retire from politics in five years, or rather, four and a half years, like the current President Lu, and return to his hometown to retire.

So, at this time, his purpose in planning to set up a polling organization was certainly not for future elections, at least not for his own use.

If it wasn't for making money, and it wasn't for his own use, then there's only one conclusion: this polling agency was founded to serve others, or more specifically, to influence future elections after Li Minbo's retirement.

This shows that, deep down, Lee Min-bo did not, as he promised Ms. Park, transfer all his resources within the party and political circles to her after her presidential term ended. He still wanted to exert his influence on the future political direction of South Korea as much as possible.

Therefore, Lee Min-bo is currently engaged in a power struggle with the "pro-Park faction" within the Grand National Party, while simultaneously mobilizing various political resources outside the party. Whether it's his interference in the leadership of the three major television stations, his efforts to win over people like Ahn Yeo-song, or even his plan to establish a polling agency, all of these are likely his means of mobilizing political resources.

From An Rusong's perspective, however, he did not believe that the methods Li Minbo used would pose a direct threat to Miss Park four years later.

This viewpoint is not only based on his memories from his previous life, but also on a very real problem: Li Minbo himself is too old. This old guy was born in 1941, and by the time his presidential term ends, he will be over seventy years old. Judging from that age alone, he will no longer have the opportunity to remain in politics.

Compared to others, Ms. Park was born in 1952, making her eleven years younger than him—an age considered prime in politics. The politicians in the Grand National Party are all extremely pragmatic; they couldn't possibly ignore age when deciding who to support.

Most importantly, while Ms. Park may lack political acumen, as the biological daughter of the former President Park, she possesses considerable political resources. Furthermore, when Lee Hoi-chang defected from the Grand National Party, facing a chaotic situation within the party, it was Ms. Park who truly stepped forward to take charge.

To put it another way, Ms. Park has rendered meritorious service and shed blood for the Grand National Party. Based on this alone, the Grand National Party cannot treat her unfairly. When Lee Min-bo leaves the Blue House, there will definitely be many people in the Grand National Party who will make such a statement.

In general, An Rusong was not optimistic about the power struggle between Li Minbo and Miss Park four and a half years later. He even thought that the former should be wise and retire when it was time to retire. Staying in power would only bring more trouble, as there have been countless examples of this in history.

Of course, from another perspective, Li Minbo's many arrangements might also be for self-preservation. After all, he is currently planning to take down President Lu. Based on the rule that he does 11% while others do 15%, once he retires, and the progressives make a comeback someday, he needs to ensure that there are still people in the political arena who will speak for him.

Furthermore, from his own perspective, An Rusong did not think he should care about Li Minbo's true intentions. The other party needed the support of a polling agency, but considering his presidential status, this polling agency obviously could not be founded or led by him. He could not even have any overt relationship with this polling agency.

That is why Li Minbo asked An Rusong for his opinion through Bai Jinjun.

In addition, to establish a polling agency from scratch and make it achieve results in a short period of time, not only is a large amount of financial investment required, but also support from the media. Only media organizations can conduct large-scale sampling surveys in the most efficient and economical way.

In South Korea, polling organizations mostly use sampling surveys when conducting polls. To ensure a valid survey, a sufficient sample size is crucial. Therefore, many polls rely on publications with distribution channels like newspapers and magazines. In recent years, however, online platforms have become increasingly common.

In general, these polling agencies don't collaborate with media organizations; they even hire their own people to conduct street polls, which incurs significant costs. Furthermore, to get ordinary people to patiently complete a survey, especially a valid one, polling agencies typically need to offer rewards, which is another substantial expense. But for An Rusong and NGN, these are clearly not problems. The NGN app has tens of millions of registered users throughout South Korea, and even excluding duplicate registrations, the number of real users is at least twenty million. In other words, in South Korea today, while not everyone has an NGN account, at least one in two people is using it.

According to Ahn Yeo-song's vision, as smartphones begin to become more widespread in South Korea, and with the promotion of the NGN mobile app, which is compatible with Apple and Android systems, the number of registered users of the NGN software in South Korea will inevitably experience another leap forward.

In this way, his polling organization has a sample base for conducting sampling surveys, and this sample base is quite substantial.

Given the nature and function of the NGN software, if An Rusong's polling organization wants to conduct a large-scale poll, it only needs to use the NGN software's pop-up window to distribute the questionnaire to tens of millions of users.

In addition, since users provide their own information when registering for the NGN software, when polling organizations need to conduct sampling surveys targeting specific groups, An Rusong only needs to retrieve user information from the database to accurately send the questionnaires to the specific user groups.

As for getting users to complete surveys, An Rusong's costs are much lower than those of ordinary polling agencies. He only needs to offer certain "digital gifts" to attract a large number of users to willingly complete the surveys. For example, he might offer software memberships, game currency, or game items.

Overall, with NGN as its backer, An Rusong has a great deal of advantage in running a public opinion polling agency.

"Brother Jin Jun, is this Mr. Qingxi's idea?" A thousand thoughts raced through his mind in an instant. An Rusong leaned forward, rested his right elbow on his thigh, looked at Bai Jin Jun opposite him, and asked in return.

Bai Jinjun nodded first, and then said, "Of course, this is just an idea for now. How to do it and whether to do it at all depends on your own decision."

“I’m not too clear about the approval process for establishing a polling agency,” An Rusong said thoughtfully, taking a drag of his cigarette and rubbing his chin with his fingers. “But if nothing unexpected happens, it will definitely have to pass the election commissioner’s hurdle.”

In South Korea, establishing a polling agency is no easy feat. Money alone isn't enough; you also need connections—truly powerful connections. As An Rusong stated, any polling agency involved in political polls must obtain approval from the National Assembly's Election Committee before it can even begin its application.

That's not all. Every time a polling organization conducts a poll related to election sentiment, it must apply for an exemption from the National Election Commission, because without an exemption, any poll related to the election is illegal under the Election Law.

“You don’t need to worry about these things,” Bai Jinjun said with a tired smile. “All the procedures and approval processes will be handled for you. Of course, what Mr. Qingxi means is that once this polling agency is established, its independence must be fully guaranteed.”

After saying this, he stared at An Rusong for a few seconds, then emphasized, "Do you understand what I mean?"

What's so hard to understand? An Rusong certainly understood. What they meant was that once this polling organization was established, its operation would belong to An Rusong, and of course, he would also be responsible for providing financial and technical support.

At the same time, Li Minbo would place a large number of people in the organization. An Rusong was not to interfere with what kind of investigations the organization conducted, how the data was used, or even whether the data was true or false. This was called ensuring the independence of the investigation.

“Brother Jin Jun, there are great risks involved,” An Rusong said after a long pause.

“So, whether you want to do it or not is up to you,” Bai Jinjun repeated his previous statement, then added, “Of course, Mr. Qingxi will also give you sufficient compensation.”

(End of this chapter)