The President’s Responsibility.
Today is Tuesday, 15th November 2016.
Within the vortex of contemporary history live two women with broken lives. Called as “my little sparrow” by her father, Svetlana Alliluyeva seeks political asylum at the US Embassy in India, leaving her motherland in 1967. Arriving in New York, she gives a press conference denouncing her father and the Soviet regime. After this, she becomes used within the power struggle between the US and Soviet Union, thus leads a confined and imprisoned life. Though she had her mother’s surname, her father’s name became chains to her own name and, living a life where she was neither an American nor a person of her own country, died in a sanitarium in Wisconsin. "Wherever I go, here, or Switzerland, or India, or wherever. Australia. Some island. I always will be a political prisoner of my father's name," she stated in an interview and it seems that she was never free from her dictator father’s name.
Park Geun-Hye - the daughter of the President of Republic of Korea, Park Chung-Hee - became the acting First Lady after she came back home whilst studying abroad in France, since her mother was shot. She also lost her father from an assassination. Her father who consecutively filled the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th Presidency, staged from a military coup d'état titled as a “Military Revolution’, amended the constitution whilst holding a long term of dictatorship. Until Kim Jae-Gyu assassinated him in 1979, 26th October, he kept his power under emergency measures as a constitutional measure to govern ROK. Although he achieved economic development known as the ‘Miracle of Hangang’, he wrote into our history a suppression of human rights through dictatorship which breaks down the fundamentals of divisions of power. The ‘Inhyukdang Incident’(People’s Revolution Party Incident) which was the main example of suppressing human rights under the Park Chung-Hee regime received a judgment of acquittal in 2015. It took 50 years to know that this was a false espionage case, when in 1965 the Supreme Court sentenced the death penalty and the sentence was executed within less than 24 hours. Park Chung-Hee’s daughter stated in a radio talk show in 2012, that the Inhyukdang Incident in relation with the Yushin regime was “to be judged by history” and “what we should be doing now is what is given to us now, and we should fulfill our mission to make our best effort”.
What would it have been like to live as a daughter of a dictator? It is difficult to imagine, or apply the guilt-by-association system and ask for moral responsibility. However, we also cannot support for an acquittal. The name of her father was not only shackles, but it also could have given a halo effect.
On the 12th of this month, over one million people gathered at Gwanggwamun Square in central Seoul. After the 1987 Civil Uprising, it is known to be the biggest scale yet to have gathered. On this day, at the Square, people with candles and signboards were all shouting “Park Geun-Hye Resign”.
President Park Chung-Hee’s daughter Park Geun-Hye became the 18th President in 2012. No matter how displeased one may be of her being president, if the elections were not falsely manipulated, then under democratic legitimacy the president of ROK is directly elected by the people. Voting is a right and freedom of the people. Even if one may vote by simple preference, because it is a principle of democracy for secret ballots, we cannot deny any votes. Within her future-oriented attitude, many could have read into it the past of splendid economic accomplishment.
However, now, as the president of this country, she is set to take great responsibility. The reason why people gathered at the square for resignation is because of the position that she fills.
With recent incidents, known as ‘Choi Soon-Sil’-Gate, is added more shock as more is revealed that even the Blue House is involved. The President of ROK has the duty to protect the constitution and at the inauguration, is set to take an oath. The Constitution of ROK presents the people as the sovereign, not an individual, and clearly following the democratic spirit supports the balance of power. If an individual with no authority exercised power, or if an individual given authority to promote public interest exercises power for one’s own interest, then that person must be punished for violating the Constitution. This is the reason why so many people came to the Square in front of the Blue House and lit their candles in the dark. It is difficult to ask of the president the responsibility of a failed policy. However it is a different question to ask for being responsible for a crime. The Prosecutor has asked exceptionally for investigating on President Park. According to the constitution, unless of criminal act for causing national disturbances within and without, a criminal prosecution is not possible, however at a point where the people who have voted for her have turned their backs, it is difficult not to ask what is wrong. Being responsible for a wrongdoing does not always relate to legal prosecution. Being responsible for doing something wrong is something that children know, and is a truth we all recognize. Furthermore, realizing the subject of disrupting the constitutional law, revealing the wrongdoings and asking for the responsibility is most needed in the current situation.
People make their own decisions and actions. A person who committed a wrongdoing on the basis of rationality and consciousness should feel ashamed and act responsibly. People brought candles to the streets, not firebombs. After an era of violence and oppression, the people of today have come to light their candles for a tomorrow. For a ruler, to repeat the past without adapting to the current period, they should have the burdens of responsibility no other individual can ever have.
Do you feel the weight of responsibility?
President Park released a statement to the nation stating “a president’s term is finite, yet Republic of Korea must live on forever”; asking for the maintenance of state affairs. Now we need to ask the same thing back. As the president stated, our nation will forever be a democratic republic that supports freedom and equality. Exempting personal feelings, being responsible for wrongdoings and differentiating sacrifice and tolerance is where we can see the future of a righteous Republic of Korea. For those who are faithful to the history of our time, you, Park Geun-Hye, now stand as the president of Republic of Korea to hold your last responsibility.
This was written by Hongphil of EOC and translated by TK.
The original article written in Korean can be found on Naver Blog http://blog.naver.com/23_hada/220861984844