Dispute grows over alleged irregularities behind state-authored textbook plan

Rep. You Sung-yop, second from right, chief of the National Assembly's Education, Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, exits a hall after a dispute with Rep. Yeom Dong-yeol of the Liberty Korea Party on a state-authored textbook plan at the education ministry's audit held at the Sejong Government Complex on Oct. 13. The ministry a day earlier requested the prosecution to investigate allegations that Cheong Wa Dae manipulated public opinion on the textbook plan. Yonhap

Ministry requests probe into alleged forging of public opinion forms

By Kim Bo-eun

The National Assembly's education committee had to adjourn its audit of the education ministry, late Thursday, to prevent an escalating dispute from developing into a physical scuffle.

The dispute centered on allegations that Cheong Wae Dae and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) manipulated and falsified public opinion in favor of the disputed plan to replace existing history textbooks with one authored by the government under the Park Geun-hye administration.

Ruling party lawmakers called for a thorough investigation into the allegations, while opposition members said the committee looking into the case was biased and that inspections needed to be conducted into opinions against the plan as well.

Last week, the education ministry requested investigators look into the case.

State-authored textbook plan

Former President Park had remarked about the importance of "having a proper spirit" based on "the correct learning of history," as the grounds for the plan to introduce a single, government-authored history textbook.

Liberal historians, educators and lawmakers denounced the plan, stating it was an attempt to impose a uniform conservative view of history, based on the Park administration's political inclination.

Some accused the plan of being Park's attempt to glorify the achievements of her father, former President Park Chung-hee, while downplaying the human rights violations that occurred under his authoritarian rule.

But the book was published in January and set to be used at schools beginning in the spring semester this year.

Following vows of many education offices nationwide that they would not cooperate, the ministry revised its plan so schools could choose between the state-authored text or a privately published one in 2018, while having schools use the books on a voluntary basis this year.

However, even this plan failed, as only one school ended up as a participant in the pilot program _ Munmyeong High School in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province. But even this school was eventually barred from using the book due to a suit filed by parents of the students.

After President Park was impeached, the plan lost further impetus, and with the inauguration of the Moon Jae-in administration it was officially scrapped.

The Moon administration established an investigation committee last month to conduct an inspection into how the plan was conducted.

Allegations of opinion manipulation

Ahead of the introduction of the plan to publish a single government-authored history textbook for middle and high schools, the ministry had conducted a public opinion survey and unveiled the results in November 2015.

Although the people against the plan more than doubled those supporting it, the then-opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy and a media outlet had raised allegations that large numbers of opinion forms in favor of the plan had been printed out at the same printing station on Yeouido, Seoul.

The investigation committee confirmed 53 out of 103 boxes of opinion forms for and against the plan contained thousands of pages of the same form.

An inspection of 26 boxes showed they carried large numbers of four types of forms, which repeatedly stated the same reasons for supporting the textbook plan.

Hundreds of forms were found to have been submitted under a single name. Only 4,374 forms met the requirements but 1,613 of the people supporting the plan had the same address.

Some of the forms were submitted with names such as Lee Wan-yong, the pro-Japanese collaborator under Japan's 1910-45 occupation of Korea, former President Park Chung-hee or Park Geun-hye. Others were submitted under absurd and obscene names, such as Korean words for "barking" and "lunacy."

Among the 4,374 people who submitted the forms, the committee randomly called 677, 252 of which responded.

Among them, 51 percent acknowledged they submitted the form, while 25 percent said they had not, and others said they did not remember.

Evidence shows this was not merely a prank, but allegedly a government-backed effort.

At the National Assembly audit in November 2015, then-Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea said, "On the last day of the opinion collection period, a ministry official received notification and around 50 boxes arrived later in the night."

Ministry officials said they received an order from an upper-level official to make people stay to count the forms that would arrive and add them to the tallied number.

The investigation committee said it received a tip-off that a professor at Sungkyunkwan University surnamed Yang had played a central role in creating the forged opinion forms.

Last week, the education ministry submitted a request to the prosecution to investigate the allegations.

Those subject to investigations are Yang, an upper-level ministry official and a group of parents. They face charges of forging documents and thereby obstructing the execution of public duty, as well as unauthorized use of others' private information.