The controversy over Saemangeum has continued for four years and seven months, but legally it will be concluded this coming March 16. It is an issue over which diverse values are in collision: The first trial ordered that construction be stopped, and the first appeal ruled that construction be allowed to continue. It is out of consideration of the complexity of the matter that the Supreme Court has taken the exceptional move of having all its judges, including the chief justice, participate in the proceedings and allow for open argument.
Unfortunately the whole debate has not adequately considered two points.
For starters, the project was started for political reasons and it has been pursued for political reasons. In 1987, then Democratic Liberal Party (currently the Grand National Party) presidential candidate Roh Tae Woo promised voters in the Honam region a land reclamation project. Once elected he tried to wiggle his way out of it, but then Peace and Democracy Party chairman Kim Dae Jung got him to expand the project so it became bigger than it would have otherwise. When current president Roh Moo Hyun was Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries he opposed the project, but once he was president he changed his mind.
Secondly, it is the truth that is most important here and the truth has not been given enough attention. The focus has been exclusively on the debate on values, namely whether to engage in development or preserve the environment. The court, therefore, needs to look at the whole process – including the budget, stated goals, economics, and expected side effects – to see whether the politicians and government functionaries tried to deceive the country. If the people were deceived there needs to judged as such.
In 1998 the Board of Audit and Inspection said it was possible the initial budget estimate was a fourth of what should have been. Indeed, the ministry responsible deliberately failed to account for water quality improvement in the budget estimate, then it distorted the environmental impact assessment, and it exaggerated the economic effects. It left out the part about creating farmland for producing food, which was supposed to be the project's goal. Government functionaries have been going forward with the project using unfounded budget estimates and feasibility studies, regardless of whether it wastes the people's hard-earned money. They do it because once a project is started it always continues. The Supreme Court must sternly judge what is happening.
The Hankyoreh, 13 March 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Judge Saemangeum Based on Facts, Not Values |
