[KIM SEONG-KON] Professors bark up the wrong tree

A few days ago, a group of professors issued a statement demanding the Lee administration to apologize for the recent suicide of former President Roh Moo-Hyun. At the press conference, the professors expressed their concern about the deterioration of democracy and the freedom of press in Korean society. While reading the statement, which called for our alert "in this time of unprecedented crisis," they looked grim and stern, enraged and infuriated. The event instantly became hot news and made national television.



Watching the press conference broadcasted by major television channels, however, many people may have wondered: "Aren`t we now living in a democratic society where the freedom of press is fully guaranteed?" "Why did the professors remain silent when the Roh administration antagonized and suppressed the uncompromising press so vehemently a few years ago?" and, "Instead of condemning the South Korean government, aren`t they supposed to issue a strong statement against North Korea that it should stop firing missiles and threatening the South?"

In the statement, the professors criticized the Lee administration as an undemocratic government. The Lee administration, however, is anything but a tyrannical one. Contrary to the professors` accusation, the Lee administration seems rather too weak to rule the country. For example, the South Korean government was so scared of the huge candlelight demonstrations last year in protest of American beef imports that it caved in to their demands. How, then, could it be a dictatorial government? Stubborn and unwise maybe, but President Lee Myung-bak is far from a dictator.

Therefore, any criticism against Lee will immediately lose credibility when it condemns him as a tyrannical leader. Today, South Korea has become one of the most democratized countries on earth. Yet, former antigovernment activists have the delusion that we still live under a dictatorship and thus try to topple any government that does not hold their ideology.

If the professors had criticized the incompetence of the Lee administration, therefore, their protest would have been much more persuasive. For example, perhaps due to the recent economic recession, the South Korean government seems to have achieved nothing spectacular so far. Instead, it unwisely froze the salaries of government officials and even clumsily initiated a much-resisted campaign among government employees of giving up 5 percent of their already meager salaries. One could also condemn the Lee administration for its highly inappropriate choice of personnel. Unfortunately, Lee is no different from his predecessor Roh in the sense that he, too, filled nearly all the major positions in his administration with his own men, regardless of their abilities.

Pursuant to the question of why the professors remained silent when the Roh administration ruthlessly suppressed the press, one can answer: "Because they were Roh supporters." The reason why they did not issue a protest against North Korea at this critical moment eludes me. It would have been much better indeed, if the professors had demanded an apology from North Korea, not from their own government.

The professors` protest last week reminded me of a similar incident that happened in 1987, which resulted in the famous June 29 announcement that finally ended the military dictatorship in South Korea. At that time, my colleagues and I signed the protest, at the risk of our jobs and imprisonment; it was during the Chun Doo-hwan era, when people were frequently arrested, tortured and lost their jobs.

The times have changed. Today, one can freely join an anti-government protest without worrying about losing one`s job or being arrested. This means that the professors who recently joined the protest are luckier than those of my generation. It also means that in such a democratized society as today`s South Korea, you do not need to issue such a statement.

Another embarrassing thing is that quite a few Koreans naively assume that the nuclear weapons of North Korea are theirs as well. They are even proud that Koreans now have nukes, whether it is North or South Korea. It never seems to occur to them that South Korea could be a target for nuclear missiles in the future. Besides, the Korean Peninsula is too small to test nuclear weapons. We cannot help but shudder at the possibility that North Korean technology may not be able to prevent radiation leaks.

One of the fatal, unpardonable wrongdoings of the Roh administration was that it tore the already divided nation into another two opposing groups; progressives vs. conservatives; haves vs. have-nots, and older people vs. younger ones. It is lamentable that even the universities are now divided by two antagonizing groups. Thus those who joined the protest do not necessarily represent their universities; there are many others who would not agree with them.

At this critical moment, the Korean professors seem to be barking up the wrong tree. They should protest against North Korea, not their government, and at the same time, put an end to factional brawls and ideological clashes. For whom are they protesting anyway?



Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul National University Press. - Ed.