President calls for higher quality of press and politics
Fellow Koreans,
I am, indeed, filled with overwhelming emotion. Twenty years have already passed, but the day is still fresh in our memory. When former President Chun Doo Hwan announced on April 13, 1987 that he would not revise the Constitution for direct presidential elections, the whole nation was seized with horror. But the people desperately wanted democracy and their wrath knew no end. They eventually rose above their fear and ousted the dictatorial regime.
The people finally pulled off the victory. Justice prevailed and democracy triumphed. It was truly an emotional victory in history.
Up until that victory, however, numerous people suffered and even sacrificed themselves. I pay tribute to the noble sacrifices of those who died for this proud history and pray for the repose of their souls. I also extend my heartfelt respect to the leadership of the struggle and the people who united as one and accomplished the historic victory.
Fellow citizens,
The June 10 Democratic Struggle is a significant part of history that needs to be particularly engraved in our memory.
The June 10 Struggle will go down in history as a victory of the people. Our proud history is studded with many memorable grass-roots struggles, and we solemnly commemorate them today. It is, however, regrettable that we can scarcely find any struggle in our history that we can call “victorious” without some hesitation.
However, our people clinched a victory with the June 10 Struggle. During the past twenty years since the struggle, we were able to completely eradicate the military dictatorships and continue to develop democracy. By doing so, we can now, without hesitation, refer to the June Struggle as a victory. The history of this victory is precious. It gives the people a sense of self-confidence, upon which to open a new chapter in our history.
The June Struggle did not erupt casually. It was a well-organized and systematic public struggle across the nation.
The leadership of the struggle was also well structured. Leaders from across a wide social spectrum participated in the struggle and won the public’s trust. They established concrete goals and values, thus attracting the wide participation of the general public. The victory was all theirs. It was the well-organized movement that gave shape to the public will and tapped its potential leading to historic progress. The June Struggle will serve as firm testimony to the belief that well organized and united people acting on clear goals and values are able to contribute to greater progress in history.
The victory of the June 10 Struggle was the fruition of long-accumulated experiences with struggles throughout our history. These include the human and civil rights struggles against tyrannies by a corrupt and incompetent despotic monarchy, countless national independence struggles against the Japanese imperialists, and incessant democratic struggles against the military dictators.
The Korean people have engraved democratic values and faith in their hearts and built up their potential through numerous failures and frustrations in history. Significant frustration does not necessarily mean a setback, but can often serve as precious experience accumulated for a greater leap forward. We should take our cue from the victory of the June Struggle and learn the wisdom of not being afraid of temporary setbacks and of not abandoning a noble cause for immediate lesser success.
Fellow citizens,
The June 10 Struggle is important not only as a historically significant event, but also as an epoch-making event that marked a turning point for national development.
Since 1987, the Korean economy has made a transition from a development-oriented and input-driven to a knowledge-based and innovation-led model, magnificently succeeding in global competition. The nations’ gross domestic product leaped from 19th in the world in 1987 to 12th in 2005 while its per-capita income climbed from 63rd place to 48th, ranking 24th among the OECD nations. There are so many other economic indicators that show that the Korean economy has made a great stride since 1987.
This is a result of shedding the government-led economy and financial system and building a full-fledged open economy as well as a transparent and fair market, in which diversity is respected and people compete with a free and creative spirit.
All these achievements would have been unthinkable had it not been for the victory of the June 10 Struggle, the change in Administrations and continued reform and efforts over the last 20 years to free the nation from the past legacy.
The economic crisis in 1997 greatly hindered the nations’ progress. Some areas have still not recovered to the pre-crisis level. The crisis erupted because we were unable to swiftly reform and overhaul the government-led economy and financial system and the anachronistic order of the dictatorial era when the nation was governed, not by law but by the arbitrary rules of those in power. Only after a complete transition of power to a full-fledged democratic government could the nation overcome the crisis with swift and thorough reform.
Some people point to the stalled economic progress after 1997 and accuse the nation’s democratic forces of being inept. This is truly nothing more than impudent rhetoric and malicious mudslinging by a shameless group of people.
I do not need to elaborate on the progress made in democracy and human rights. When I traveled abroad, I heard people saying over and over again that Korea has succeeded not only in fostering its economy but also in building its democracy. I also felt in my bones that democratically legitimate leaders are treated with respect in the international community and that the nation’s standing in the world had risen.
Once again, I would like to express respect and gratitude for those who dedicated their lives for the sake of democracy.
Fellow citizens,
The June 10 Democratic Struggle, however, still stands as a bittersweet victory.
Over the last 20 years, we achieved a transition of power and put an end to the culture of unfair privileges and collusion, removing authoritarianism and corruption while creating a transparent and fair society. Though somewhat belated, the nation is steadily moving to wipe out the legacy of pro-Japanese collaborators and shine a light on past wrongdoings.
When speaking of the structural aspect, it can be said that there have been significant achievements through the democratic reform and the removal of systems fostered under authoritarian governments.
However, still incomplete is the quest for reforming undemocratic laws. The forces of vested interests of old
days continue to collude with the old guard media in protest against reforms and block the road to progress. Even worse yet, they condemn a democratic government with a legitimate mandate from the people as a pro-North Korean and leftist regime. They even deal out the absurd rhetoric that they would rather have a corrupt administration than an inept one while openly revealing their true colors as forces of corruption and the security-driven dictatorships of the past. What’s more, they label the democratic forces as being inept, plotting to rise to power on the back of the nostalgia for the development-oriented dictatorships of the past.
Having acted as the mouthpiece for dictatorial power that blinded the eyes and deafened the ears of the people and denounced law-abiding citizens as rioters, they have reappeared on the scene as a power base of their own, strutting at the forefront of efforts to rattle the democratic forces and protect the value of the old guard. To this day, I have never heard any of them apologizing to the people for their past mistakes.
The remnants of military dictatorships are attempting to turn back the clock, and the democratic forces are suffering from defeatism and do not know which way to go. In this situation, none of us seems to have enough confidence just yet to say that the June Struggle was a successful revolution. The sad situation is the result of failing to replace the dominant forces and political leadership once and for all since the June Struggle. It is also due to division and opportunism.
Our failure in 1987 and the merger of the three major parties in 1990 dealt an aching loss to the democratic forces. Because of provincialism and opportunism, we missed a chance for a genuine change of the government and gave an opportunity for the old guard to rise again. The most aching loss of all is the opportunity for the old guard press to revive; the old guard press that had colluded with military dictatorships has re-emerged as a mighty power speaking for them. Division and opportunism reduced the worthy cause of the June Struggle by half. Of course, it is the result of the leaders’ wrongdoing rather than the people’s. So we are still burdened with the historic debt to make that half victory a complete victory.
Fellow citizens,
The tasks lying before us are obvious. That is that we have to do our best to make the half whole. In other words, we have to carry out democracy in a right way.
The age of the struggle for democratization and anti-dictatorships has largely come to an end. Also, it is hard to again question the legitimacy of the old guard. We have no choice but to recognize them and compete with them in the spirit of fair play. We have to further develop democracy by engaging in dialogue and compromise while admitting defeat at times.
To this end, we have to get rid of politics based on provincialism and opportunism·the task that has continued to persist since 1987. Just because we want to defeat the old guard, we should not resort to provincialism. We should not tolerate opportunism, either.
At the same time, we should try to see beyond the politics of today, mending backward political systems in an effort to bring about an advanced democratic system. The single-term provision for the President as well as the system of separating the party and Government should be changed; so should the election laws that ban election campaigning by the President and require him or her to maintain political neutrality. It is about time that the nation changed its thinking that opposition parties should have more seats than the Government party in the legislature and that a political coalition is illegitimate collaboration. Only by overcoming the current thinking can the nation have politics characteristic of an advanced country.
The press has to change, too. It should not demand special privileges any longer or try to aim at becoming a political power in and of itself. It has to try to become a faithful, fair and responsible press. Korean democracy will make progress only as much as the Korean press does. This represents the last reform task of the nation.
The level of participation by citizens exercising their sovereign rights will decide the level of democracy. A bright future for Korean democracy will be assured when citizens proactively and creatively exercise sovereign rights, make political choices, choose leaders and work closely with them, and act as leaders themselves.
I have trust in the potential of the Korean people. There is nothing we cannot achieve once we decide. Just as we became one in the streets of the nation 20 years ago in June, let us join forces to consummate Korean democracy. Let us put an end to provincialism and opportunism, and forge ahead for an era of democracy and the full exercise of sovereign rights both in name and substance.
Thank you.
웹사이트: http://www.president.go.kr
이 보도자료는 Office of the President가(이) 작성해 뉴스와이어 서비스를 통해 배포한 뉴스입니다. 뉴스와이어는 편집 가이드라인을 준수합니다.