Preview: "Issues in Depth" Series 2008-08-18 07:31
Beginning next week, I will post a series of articles detailing some of today's most controversial political issues in South Korea. It has been nearly three months since the events in late May prompted me to start this blog. In essence, not much has changed; we're still trying to make our stubborn government listen to what we said back in May. Still, for those of you who only recently found out about our struggles, I hope this series will help make it clear exactly what it is that the Korean People and its government are fighting over.
Long-time readers (thank you very much), on the other hand, may have been waiting for me to tie up some of the loose ends that I left hanging. I remember writing on numerous occasions that such and such a topic deserves a separate article, but I have rarely followed up with the promised article(s). Now I'm going to fill you in as best as I can.
Here's a tentative list of issues I want to go over. I will dedicate at least one full article to each topic. Many of these issues are still in the middle of unfolding, so the order in which they are listed here isn't necessarily the order in which they will be written on.
1. U.S. beef imports
On April 18, 2008, on the eve of President Lee's first meeting with George W. Bush, the Korean government suddenly dropped all of its restrictions regarding the import of American beef. (Some of them have been put back temporarily in June.) This unexpected decision triggered a series of massive protests, as hundreds of thousands of ordinary Koreans got angry about the government's blatant neglect of food safety. In particular, a lot of us have been concerned about the (in)adequacy of BSE controls in the U.S.
Questions: Did we have good reasons to suspect that U.S. cattle are susceptible to BSE (mad-cow disease)? Why did the government act as it did?
2. PD Notebook
MBC (Korea's second largest TV station) has a program called "PD Notebook", a hallmark of investigative journalism. In late April, PD Notebook talked about food safety practices in the U.S., and its reports greatly fueled our aforementioned fears over BSE. Since then, the government has taken issue with certain aspects of PD Notebook's reports, calling them "distorted and exaggerated". A highly targetted investigation followed, and MBC was forced to apologize for its "erroneous reports". Meanwhile, tens of thousands of citizens have been protesting the government's (allegedly one-sided) investigation.
Questions: What exactly did PD Notebook say? How much, if any, did they distort and exaggerate? If some of its reports were false, where do we -- those millions of protesters incited by PD Notebook's reports -- stand now?
3. Death Theory
Regarded by some as the ultimate nemesis of Lee's government and by others as nothing more than an urban legend, reporter Choi Yong-Geun's assertion that a young woman was killed by the police during the demonstration of May 31 - June 1 has since become an extremely sensitive topic -- especially as the government is trying very hard to censor it. The police is having a hard time coming up with a coherent account of what happened; news agencies are contradicting their own reports of the event in question; and the dearth of reliable photographic evidence only adds to the uncertainty. Meanwhile, dead bodies have been found, and...
Questions: Are there reasons to suspect that the death theory is more than just an urban legend? What has the government done to explain itself, and what has it done that keeps making reasonable citizens suspicious? In particular, what does the government's attempts to censor all discussions of the death theory tell us about its attitude towards "inconvenient facts"?
A newspaper ad introducing the death theory and asking eyewitnesses to come forth. The ad was supported by donations from concerned citizens, but the man who organized the effort was arrested afterwards. That's right, we're not even allowed to try to discover the truth.
4. Privatization
Clearance! 50% Off! Nearly every public corporation in Korea is now on sale, thanks to President Lee's unyielding conviction that a government should be as small as it can be. That's very conservative, thank you very much, but certainly there's got to be a line that shouldn't be crossed? Why is the government so intent, for example, on selling the world-renowned Incheon International Airport, which has been making a neat profit for quite some time? And what's the deal with privatizing the health care system, when every other developed nation except the U.S. has the government take care of its citizens' health? Of course, when these public amenities are sold to third parties, the government makes money. But where does that money go? Smell kleptocracy, anybody?
5. Government control of the media
Many of the major dailies are already quite pro-government, and now two of Korea's four largest TV stations are having their CEO's replaced with the President's close friends. There is also compelling evidence that government personnel are being stationed right inside the datacenters of Korea's largest Internet portals. Truth becomes what the government wants it to be. Without knowing what's going on, how can we keep protesting?
6. Distortion of recent history
History books are being rewritten, praising the colonizers of early 20th century for their alleged contribution to Korea's economic growth, and labelling as terrorists those who fought for our independence. Cold War ideology is being revived, and anything other than radical conservatism -- or should we say, a brand of fascism? -- is automatically equated with North Korea. Well, not so blatantly, but clearly enough that it's unmistakable. To be sure, previous governments had also written history books to their liking; but this time it's much worse than before. Which makes many of us wonder: what does the ruling group gain by trying to change the past?
7. Whatever else comes up next...
So please, stay tuned, check back every once in a while, and pray that our beloved country doesn't go to the dogs...... or rather, to rats...... (Rat is a nickname of President Lee.)
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