Officials must think about extreme act's meaning
Global villagers might remember a shocking 1963 photo of a Vietnamese Buddhist monk sitting upright in flames in an antiwar demonstration. A similar incident took place in a remote town here Monday, although there were wide differences in media coverage and the causes of the protest.
The Korean monk, named Reverend Munsu, left a will written on his robe urging the government to stop the ``life-destroying" project to remake the nation's four longest rivers, root out widespread corruption in officialdom and conduct politics not for the rich and powerful but for the poor and weak.
Ending one's own life runs counter to the will of the absolute being, which is why most religions forbid it. One could neither praise nor glorify suicide under any circumstances, especially those by priests.
That said, people, especially government officials, will have to stop and think at least once what has driven the 47-year-old monk to the extreme means of self-immolation, with respect to the controversial river reconstruction project.
All religions place life on top of everything, but there must be something that cannot be explained by just the simple respect of life behind the literally desperate resistance to the river project by all of the nation's four major religions, which also include Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Won Buddhism. Religious leaders sum this up as a ``loss of humanity" marking the whole of Korean society in large part encouraged by this ``pragmatic" administration, in which ends are justifying all means.
The confrontation between developmentalists and environmentalists is not unique to this country, but nowhere else is such a fight more paralleled and uglier. On the one hand, the government says building dams and reservoirs in rivers is ``green" development, which increases water volume and improves water quality, while its critics argue it is en environmental disaster.
When the two conflicting arguments are too poles apart to find a middle ground, the only compromise should be sought in taking a more cautious, gradual approach. Yet the Lee administration is pushing ahead with the reconstruction of the nation's largest rivers as if there are no next governments and despite opposition from a majority of the people. Little surprise then religious leaders are resisting the ruling elite's unwarranted assumption of infallibility, which the priests believe should belong to only gods.
President Lee must be aware that if he fails to complete the project during his tenure, it would remain half-finished forever or even go up in smoke. One can see few good reasons for such haste otherwise. Nothing demonstrates the risks inherent in the artificial remake of nature than the fact that Lee is so unsure about the project's survival under his successor ― whether political ally or opponent.
Worrisome in this regard is the determination of Lee's Grand National Party to even speed up the works if it emerges as a winner in Wednesday's local elections.
If ancient sages excuse us, people's arrogance may be short, but their repentance will be very long.
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