The effects of the case of Dongguk University professor Kang Jeong Koo have gone beyond the issue of the prosecution's independent investigative authority and finally become a controversy over the identity of the South Korean state. Conservative forces in our society such as Grand National Party (GNP) chairwoman Park Geun Hye and other self-proclaimed "conservative elder statespersons" are calling the situation as "crisis in the liberal democratic system of government" and rising to "save the Republic of Korea."
We cannot help but ask just what kind of liberal democratic system it is that Park and other conservative figures seek to uphold and respect. Are they talking about a society where you always measure academic claims that are out of the mainstream by legal standards and then ask questions later, or a system that thoroughly excludes constitutionally stipulated protections on personal liberty and the legal principle of "innocent until proven guilty"? At this point you wonder if they believe that the only way to "save the Republic of Korea" is to keep the harsh logic of "public security" alive so as to return the country's human rights standards back to yesteryear? Instead of going on about the "legitimacy of the state," conservative elements of this country first need to ask themselves whether they are indulging in nostalgia for the "illegitimate regimes" of years ago.
Our society is sharply divided over the question of whether Justice Minister Chun Jung Bae was right to invoke his right to intervene in a prosecution investigation. However, the majority of the country does not overinterpret the decision as evidence that the Republic of Korea is taking a hard left turn. The people are not so foolish that they are going to get confused by demagogy that says Chun's directive that Kang be investigated without being detained was made "to please the North Korean regime." They are underestimating the strengths and advances of our society if they think the old-style redbaiting offensives are still going to have the same effect.
We hope the elements that call themselves conservative decide that this is enough and return to the world of reason and common sense, and that they would stop wasting energy on an unnecessary fight. We also hope that before they continue to argue that Kang should be investigated while in detention, the old-establishment media would read a sentence from one of their editorials written when their company presidents were arrested on tax evasion charges in 2001: "persons should be tried without being under detention so as to prevent serious infringements on personal freedom." There is too much to be done for the country to be up every night engaged in the old redbaiting arguments.
The Hankyoreh, 19 October 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] What Kind of 'Liberal Democracy' Do They Want? |
