Concerned artists join hands for anti-President rally
By Park Jin-hai
Nearly 200,000 angry citizens turned up for the anti-President rally Saturday, calling for the resignation of President Park Geun-hye to take responsibility for her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil’s influence-peddling scandal.
Among the protests are artists involved in cultural associations and groups.
Some 100 artists from cultural circles held a press conference in Seoul a day earlier to issue a joint statement signed by 288 cultural organizations to put pressure on the President.
This is largest collective action by artists against the government in South Korea’s 71 years of modern history.
Led by Cultural Action, Writers Association of Korea and The Korean People Artist Federation, the artists said they were unable to sit idly by at a time of crisis when culture and the arts were used by a handful of greedy people to fatten their pockets.
The artists denounced the culture projects pushed by Choi and her conspirators under the Park government. “Choi has been above the nation, meddling in state affairs, while President Park was her puppet in overall state affairs, including personnel, budget, diplomacy and security” they said. “It is a sheer shock that so many corruption scandals have been uncovered among the culture ministry’s projects.”
They referred to a recent ongoing scandal over leaked government blacklists of artists, saying that the troubles the named 9,473 artists face are a problem affecting the whole nation.
The artists urged President Park and her aides involved in the Choi scandal to step down, saying their censorship paralyzed cultural administration of the country.
“Suggesting cultural prosperity as part of her key agenda, Park fooled the whole public,” said Song Hyung-jong, a theater director.
As the public fury over “Choi Soon-sil gate” shows no signs of subsiding and more pieces of evidence concerning corruption continue to uncover how deep Cho’s influence ran in the culture and arts industries, more artists are expected to join hands for the campaign to pressure Park to step down.
On Tuesday, 1,000 musicians will issue a joint statement as well. Publishers have been collecting signatures from those involved in arts and culture to strengthen their collective action against the Park government.