Park should follow freedom fighters' will

By Park Jae-hyuk

Rep. Lee Jong-kul said President Park Geun-hye should follow the will of independence activists who fought for the nation and the people at the cost of their property and even their lives.

He deplored that Park and her followers including confidant Choi Soon-sil have been selfish and greedy instead of serving for the betterment of the people’s livelihood.

Rep. Lee, who served as floor leader of the opposition Minjoo Party of Korea ㅡ now Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) ㅡ for a year, urged Park and her administration to stop extorting taxes from hardworking citizens.

The four-term lawmaker of the DPK is a grandson of Lee Hoe-yeong, a famous independence activist and anarchist.

“The President and authorities who keep lying should end their crimes, at least for the sake of the founders of this country,” Lee said during an interview with The Korea Times.

“I attended yesterday the premiere of Do-ol Kim Yong-ok’s movie filmed in Manchuria and heard him talk about the blistering cold there. Anti-Japan fighters joined the independence movement there, donating all of their possessions.”

His grandfather, after selling off his entire 730-hectare farmland to raise money for the movement, went to Manchuria with his 40 family members and liberated servants there in 1910. The anarchist established the Sinheung Military School ㅡ a guerilla warfare training camp of independence fighters, which was also introduced in the movie “Assassination” premiered last year.

“My grandfather passed away in 1932 when the possibility of independence seemed slim. Most fighters were dead at that time, while the threat of Japan was growing,” the lawmaker said. “However, my grandfather had kept his faith to achieve independence as one of the noblemen of Joseon.”

Mentioning the noblesse oblige of his grandfather, which has been recognized by many people including famous history tutor Seol Min-suk, Lee criticized the Choi Soon-sil scandal which showed the total opposite of noblesse oblige.

“Citizens paid 13 trillion won ($11 billion) worth of taxes on cigarettes last year and the money has been used for the President and Choi through secret bank accounts,” he said. “Also, two innocent students could not enter the university, in order to give Choi’s daughter Chung Yoo-ra a pass.”

Rep. Lee said Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon also worried about students becoming nihilists, while announcing the findings of an investigation into Chung’s high school the day before the College Scholastic Ability Test.

A memorial ceremony of the 84th anniversary of Lee Hoe-yeong’s death was held on the day of the interview at Sangdong Methodist Church, downtown Seoul, where the independence activist had organized a secret society named the New People's Association. Lee’s descendants and 200 officials, including National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, participated in the ceremony. According to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, 53 descendants of independence activists received scholarships worth 81 million won in total.

Rep. Lee said, “Until the 1960s, descendants were reluctant to speak out about their ancestors who were independence fighters, as they were under the U.S. military government and Syngman Rhee administration.” He added the government should recover the fighters’ honor and make their descendants be proud of their ancestors.