[Editorial] New Right declares itself against democracy, freedom, and the market

"New Right" scholars have published another political pamphlet, this time titled "An Alternative Textbook of Modern Korean History." As expected, it glorifies Japanese colonial rule as a modernization process, calls the May 16th Coup d'Etat the "May Revolution," and the Yusin establishment a system that improved the government's ability to govern. It follows right along in the steps of the fascist view of history by glorifying those who promoted the annexation of the country and the denial of popular sovereignty, human rights abuses, and totalitarianism.

The New Right first revealed its true nature in "Rethinking the Liberation Period" (Haeban Jeonhusaui Jaeinsik). This time its members have essentially declared that they are the direct descendants of the country's old-establishment conservatives. Korea's far-right, old-establishment conservatives are the ones who served as petty officials of the Japanese aggressors, only to emerge as the ruling elite after Liberation and maintain dictatorships for close to 40 years, and may be characterized as collaborationist, compradorist, and flunkeyist. Their symbolic figure is Park Chung-hee, once an officer in the Kwantung Army. They place him at the center of modern Korean history.

The pamphlet goes so low that it is hard to argue with it on a scholarly basis. It is something made exclusively for the purpose of political dispute. However, one does want to guard against the possibility that it will ride the winds of political neo-conservatism and delude and deceive the people. Its authors have no consistent criterion for evaluating and writing accounts of history. They look like they value democracy, but in fact glorify dictatorship and human rights abuses. They pretend to value market efficiency, but are actually praising the state's efficient ability to control what happens. They invoke the name of liberalism but ignore the universal values of freedom, human rights, and democracy. They talk about freedom of the press but rationalize the forced closures of news outlets. The confused mix-ups throughout the pamphlet make you think its authors are mentally ill. Add everything they praise together, and you have drawn yourself a picture of the North Korean regime.

How would people such as these be able to fully describe the significance of the May 19th Revolution, the June Struggle, or the Gwangju Democracy Campaign? They call the latter a simple student-led event, the June Struggle a decisive move on the part of those in power at the time, and what happened in Gwangju as little more than something that contributed to the growth of anti-American extremism. One can appreciate how they would come to such conclusions, given their readiness to sacrifice freedom, justice, democracy and peace for efficiency and growth.

But however much you concede to people like this, there is one line scholars should never cross. They should never take material meant for their own study purposes and try to push its contents onto students. Students are supposed to be taught to view even widely reviewed information with a critical eye.

Please direct questions or comments to [[e-mail]]