[Editorial] For progress, Democracy movement needs clear vision

The tiny embers that shed light on the path toward democracy burned even in the darkest hours of the May Sixteenth coup d’etat of 1980. Those embers gathered in schools, in the streets, in factories and in prisons across the land. They burned together and formed the tidal wave of democracy that could not be stopped by the Garrison Act, the Yusin Government, and "emergency measures." Even during the massacre by the "New Military" (as coup instigator and eventual president Chun Doo-hwan styled his junta), this wave grew to new heights in the May Eighteenth Gwangju Democracy Campaign of 1980 to ultimately flare up in the June Tenth Struggle of 1987.

It was a long and treacherous road. The blood and sweat shed along the way filled rivers and built a mountain. It was on top of this mountain of struggle that the civil rights and procedural democracy of today were made possible. We accomplished democracy and economic development even during the worst of the Cold War and in the ruins of war itself, and we managed to plant the values of human rights, conscience, brotherly love, and solidarity, despite the military confrontation still existent in our country. The year 2007 marks the 20th anniversary of the June Struggle. The "June Struggle Generation" now has to endeavor to realize democratic values in this country, even after its initial stages of democratization have been completed.

Nowadays, however, this generation is mocked instead of given flower wreaths. The democracy movement is treated with contempt and its values are treated with distain. It has been branded arrogant, self-righteous, and incompetent. It has lost the pride it once had, though it was a grass-roots struggle. It is now the object of the same sharp criticism it used to issue to those who enjoyed privileged status in our society.

Make no question about it, the forces of democracy and progressivism are in a state of crisis. Even more alarming, there is a crisis surrounding democracy itself. Continued economic stagnation and high unemployment since the democratic change of government have brought the spirit of dictator Park Chung-hee back from the grave. Economic disparity has let the big conglomerates and the forces of the old political establishment take the common people for a ride.

In an opinion survey commissioned by the National Assembly last year, respondents were asked what they would choose if they were forced to make an either/or choice between democracy and economic development. A full 84.6 percent said they would choose economic development. It is no wonder that democracy is in regression.

The other day, people that had been part of the democracy movement in the seventies got together to engage in some introspection. At the meeting, there were also individuals involved in the movement from the sixties though the eighties, so the effects of this event will by no means be small. No new ideas about what the causes and solutions should be will immediately come from this introspection, but change will begin as everyone shares their ideas and proposals.

During the event, Sogang University professor Sohn Ho-chul talked about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization of families of those who "disappeared" during Argentina’s military dictatorship. Even today, the group’s members observe several rules. The remains of the disappeared are not to be exhumed. Their children are not dead; they live on among their peers where the democracy movement continues. They do not build memorials. The spirit of their sacrifice must be remembered and carried in the struggle, not frozen in stone. Finally, they refuse financial compensation in the belief that one cannot reduce the value of human life to money. How can you trade for money the sprit of their drive for justice? The stature the organization holds in Argentina makes it that country’s conscience. This lamp of truth sheds light on the pain of the oppressed and alienated in that country.

Things are no different for us. Who ever gave himself for the democracy campaign with the intention of getting compensation, and who ever took the hand of the disadvantaged in our society to win fame? Today, however, tawdry medals and cheap compensation programs are covering up that spirit.

We have achieved democracy, but more people have to endure greater poverty and deeper loss than before. As long as these members of society are unable to live in humane conditions, democratization in incomplete. We need to form alliances based on a clear vision and realistic proposals, and by doing so implement progressive values. There must be no repetition of the ignorance and arrogance involved in signaling a left turn while in fact speeding to the right. We must again stand out in the cold wind of the open plain, just like the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

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