It was good to see a sitting President honor the May 1980 democracy movement in Gwangju, for the first time in five years Saturday. It was bad to find no bereaved families of the deceased fighters in the ceremony, however.
The ostensible reason for the “half-ceremony” was the refusal by its organizer, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, to allow the participants to sing in unison the movement’s unofficial theme song, “March for the Beloved.” Underneath it, however, were the families’ regrets about the conservative governments’ gradual playing down of the historic event, manifest in the MPVA’s attempt to “remove” the song.
Former President Lee Myung-bak attended the ceremony only once, in his first year in office, but skipped it for the rest of his tenure reportedly for his dislike of the song sung by civic groups, unionists and other anti-establishment protesters. The MPVA has since tried to replace it with a “less rebellious” one, even spending 48 million won in taxpayer money to achieve that.
Unlike most other participants in the ceremony who sang along the choir, President Geun-hye rose to her feet with a national flag in hand and just looked at the words on the screen.
It was not certain whether it was Park’s expression of will to succeed her predecessor’s policy or she was just respecting the decision by her administration. One thing certain is the President’s indecision or tacit endorsement of the change in the theme song could have the same effect of encouraging some ultra-rightists to distort ― and defame ― one of the bravest and most tragic democracy movements in the nation’s recent history.
There have been a group of extremists who claimed the massive armed protests against the then “new military” led by former President Chun Doo-hwan was instigated by North Korea. Now the ultra-rights even go as far as labeling the protesters as North Korean commandos disguised as South Korean civilians. Most astonishing of all, this rubbish is being spread by cable TV channels owned by such mainstream conservative dailies as Chosun Ilbo and Dong-A Ilbo.
It is more than worrisome that these media outlets seem to be abandoning the basic role of responsible news organizations blinded by shortsighted commercial and ideological needs. That the cable channels are not full news stations or they just provided opportunities for these bizarre dubious claimants to make public appearances can hardly be excuses.
How dare one deny the historical fact that post-democratization courts convicted and punished Chun, his successor Roh Tae-woo and their military colleagues in the 1979 coup, and restored the honors of the victims of the Gwangju movement as democracy fighters? The May 1980 movement is even listed as a UNESCO historical heritage.
John Linton, who served as a translator between the citizen militia and foreign correspondents in May 1980, said painting the protesters as North Korean agents is an insult to the citizens of Gwangju and “killing twice” the innocent victims. We can hardly agree more.
At the other end of the extremes, some progressive academics made social stirs recently by describing Korea’s history in the last decade as a century-long crusade against pro-Japanese collaborators, which, however, was closer to the interpretation, if one-sided, of historical facts rather than its fabrication, as is the case of rightists on Gwangju movement.
Ideologues, left or right, should not be allowed to distort historical facts. The current situation is especially lamentable, considering Koreans have long been fighting among themselves, divided between communists and capitalists, and between rights and lefts, all because of one historical event ― Japanese colonization ― while the origin of all this, Japan, is going back to what it was a century ago.
This is no time for more fights among Koreans, north and south, east and west. President Park should attend the ceremony every year and ― hopefully ― sing the song. Then all Koreans, including her liberal opponents, will also embrace the person who started military dictatorship ― her father. She must initiate such reconciliation.