War of Ideology
By Sah Dong-seok
Deputy Managing Editor
On Feb. 1, thousands of people staged a rally in central Seoul, accusing President Lee Myung-bak of rolling back democracy and shouting ``down with dictatorship.'' The rally, which continued late into the night, was held to condemn Lee and his conservative administration, claiming that they should be responsible for a deadly police crackdown on squatters that left six people dead.
During the protests, some people clashed with police who were trying to block them from marching into the streets. Some protestors and police officers were injured and taken to a hospital. On Jan. 19, police launched a pre-dawn raid on a four-story building in Seoul's Yongsan district to evict dozens of squatters opposing redevelopment of the neighborhood. Six people, including a police officer, were killed in the fire.
On the surface, it was just a tragic incident that occurred in the midst of a struggle for survival in these difficult economic times. But it was more than that: the vivid scene of an ideological conflict now raging in South Korea. The fact that political parties, including the main opposition Democratic Party, and left-leaning civic activists took part added an ideological flare to the protests.
The outdated war of ideology is engulfing South Korea, the world's 13th largest economy, to the extent that its imminent task to ride out the latest economic firestorm is being hampered. The nation's liberals, including leftists, have been trying to force out the Lee Myung-bak administration since Lee's inauguration last February by all means available. The right-wing conservative forces, for their part, had pushed for impeachment to dethrone former President Roh Moo-hyun, citing his petty unlawful acts. They are indeed waging a fierce war to deny the very existence of their counterparts.
The opposing forces will have another round of head-on clashes at the National Assembly later this month over so-called evil bills, following their violent confrontation in December when photos of some lawmakers using sledgehammers to break into doors at the building made headlines in the world's major newspapers. The opposition and civic activists argue that those ``evil bills,'' if passed, would roll back Korea's hard-won democracy. One bill particularly at issue proposes that large businesses and newspapers be allowed to own or control television stations, a move critics argue is aimed at helping the governing Grand National Party prolong its power. The GNP controls 172 seats in the 299-member Assembly.
The candle-lit vigil that shook the fledgling Lee administration last spring was another scene of the intensifying ideological conflict in Korea. The protests began with people's simple antipathy against U.S. beef imports after the new government's bungled negotiations with the United States. But the vigils were spoiled as political parties and leftist activists took the initiative, plunging the country into chaos for more than three months.
The left-right confrontation became intense under the Roh administration as more former activists took part in state affairs and tried to drive out conservatives who still occupied many government and public posts. Roh and his aides also went ahead with their own ``reform legislation,'' including the abolition of the anti-communist National Security Law, sparking tough protests from the right-wing forces. The result was the utmost confusion during most of Roh's five-year term and eventually the change of power from left to right.
The Korean press is to blame for the latest escalation of the ideological war. Newspapers, in particular, showed extreme bias along their ideological lines in violation of the basic principles of reporting. In the Yongsan fire tragedy, conservative dailies lashed out at protestors mostly, focusing on the unlawfulness of the tenants' actions and protests, while liberal ones concentrated their focus only on the police's brutal crackdown on the squatters, making light of the social norm of law and order. The liberal dailies even likened the Feb. 1 protests to the 1987 pro-democracy movement that brought to an end decades of dictatorship in South Korea.
To be sure, this never-ending ``chicken game'' should be stopped. There are both leftists and rightists and both governing and opposition parties in any country. In no other country, however, are the opposing forces trying to root out each other's existence.
Now it's time to step back and put an end to this anachronistic war. It's sad to see the recurrence of similar ideological battles whenever some inflammable issue arises. Before anything else, both sides have to accept each other's values under the spirit of tolerance. The conservative forces are required to acknowledge the fundamental ideologies of their counterparts: equality, distribution and poverty. The liberal forces, for their part, must accept the regime change and give up their habitual opposition to all government policies in consideration of the looming global economic crisis.