Lesson of “A Car without a Steering Wheel”
On June 21, 1979, President Kim Il Sung was stressing the need to maintain independence in carving out the destiny of a nation, when he told King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia a humour story “A Car without a Steering Wheel”, which was popular among the people in Eastern Europe.
It goes like this.
General secretary of the communist party of a European country gave the counterpart of the ruling party of another country a car with no steering wheel but a hook only at the front, as a gift.
When the latter complained that he could find no steering wheel, but only a hook attached to the front of the car, the former said:
It would cause no problems. You can sit comfortably when the car is hooked to the back of the car in front. All you have to do is to sit still in your car when I drive the front car.
The President looked at Norodom Sihanouk as though he was asking for the lesson gained from “A Car without a Steering Wheel”.
Noting that the story teaches politicians a serious lesson, Sihanouk said, “Now I have realized that the steering wheel a politician should grab firmly in carving out the destiny of a nation is none other than independence.”
