There are growing calls for the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation to be normalized in the wake of findings by the National Intelligence Service's (NIS) truth commission stating that the Buil Scholarship Foundation was given to the state under coercion and that the sale of the Gyeonghyang Sinmun was forced as well. According to the commission the Park Chung Hee regime used the National Security Planning Agency to take the Buil Scholarship Foundation from the late Kim Jin Tae and gave the shares owned in the Busan Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, the Korea Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, and the Busan Ilbo and placed it all with the May 16 Scholarship Foundation. The Gyeonghyang Sinmun had been critical of the government at the time and its owner was forced to sell to other interests. The commission's findings are very significant.
Both events originated in a conspiracy by a military dictatorship to seize control of the media. The case Buil was even more wrong for having been an essential privatization by a dictator using unfair means to take private companies. The Buil Scholarship Foundation became the May 16 Scholarship Foundation and later the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation, and all the while the president Park's descendants and former aides have controlled the organization. That prevented the media it owns from being able to perform their role properly. Currently Jeongsu owns 100 percent of the Busan Ilbo and 30 percent of Munhwa Broadcasting, meaning it has decisive keys in controlling both news outlets. Kim's family surely could want ownership of the foundation back again, but it is fortunate that they seek only that it be made a normal scholarship foundation.
Making the Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation a true public interest foundation is about correcting past wrongs. It would also be a way for the media, one of society's public institutions, to be able to perform its role properly. When the foundations past was first exposed early this year Grand National Party (GNP) chairwoman Park Geun Hye stepped down as the foundation's director, a position she had held for the previous ten years. Other members of the board of directors, however, are still managing the foundation, and it is still far from being a normal scholarship foundation. All of them need to step down and Jeongsu needs to be completely reorganized with a new board filled with people in which the public has confidence. Kim and his family's honor would be restored in that process.
The Hankyoreh, 26 July 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Jeongsu Scholarship Foundation Should be Reborn |
