Sewol raised as Park Geun-hye sinks
By Kim Rahn
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Former President Park Geun-hye speaks during her visit to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters in Seoul seven hours after Sewol ferry began sinking in this April 16, 2014 photo. / Yonhap
Seeing the ferry Sewol finally emerging from the water, Thursday, nearly three years after it sank off the southwestern island of Jindo, some people might have thought about one ill-fated woman ― former President Park Geun-hye.
It might be coincidental that the ferry was lifted just after Park was removed from power, but many are talking about a possible correlation between the two incidents.
The nation’s worst maritime disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 304 passengers and crewmembers, was a symbolic case showing the Park administration’s incompetence. As she showed no sincere effort to salvage the sunken vessel quickly and failed to empathize with bereaved families, the incident quickly became a political issue.
And people started to believe that Park was trying to keep the ship in the water as long as she could to prevent possible political damage.
For the last three years, the government has not been active in salvaging the ferry, in which the remains of nine unaccounted-for people are believed to remain, and finding out the truth about why the ferry sank. It also failed to determine whether rescue work and its consequent responses were proper, although the government claimed it was actively doing so.
Because lifting the sunken ferry required a combination of appropriate technology and proper weather conditions, it may be coincidental that the slow salvage process suddenly sped up and the ferry was lifted only days after Park’s removal. But the timing of the salvage leaves questions about whether her administration had been deliberately lukewarm on the issue to conceal evidence that could show its incompetence.
Last year, a memo from the late former senior presidential secretary Kim Young-han showed that former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon said in a meeting with secretaries in July 2014 that the remains should not be recovered because more bodies would make the government more accountable for the sinking in the public’s eye.
Controversy about raising the ferry started when the government picked Shanghai Salvage for the job, despite the state-run Chinese company having not enough of a track record.
The company initially suggested a lifting method using a floating dock and cranes, but a series of failures showed the method was inappropriate for the Sewol. So in November it employed another method called “tandem lifting” using jacking barges, which had been suggested earlier by another company during the bidding.
When the first method was announced, some salvage experts raised questions and bereaved family members of the ferry victims asked the government to seek advice from experts ― all of which the government ignored. The special fact-finding committee on the Sewol tragedy also raised an issue about the method, but the Park administration then refused to extend its investigation period.
Another issue surrounding the ferry disaster is what Park was doing during the first seven hours when the ship started sinking.
The former president and her aides claimed she was working at her office in the residence within Cheong Wa Dae and receiving written and phone reports about the situation. But they failed to provide evidence ― there were no phone records of calls from aides, nobody really “saw” her in the office, and her remarks at the disaster control headquarters seven hours after the incident started showed she had not grasped the situation. Rumors spread that she was receiving cosmetic treatment during the time, which she denied.
The National Assembly listed the issue as one of reasons for impeachment in December ― she was derelict in her duty and thus failed to protect the people’s lives. However, the Constitutional Court did not acknowledge this, saying political incompetence is not sufficient reason to remove a president.
But many still say the Sewol tragedy best represents Park’s incompetence and her way of handling state affairs ― failing to communicate with aides and the public, attempting to conceal the truth, and blacklisting those critical of her.
Rep. Sim Sang-jung of the progressive Justice Party recently said, “The court did not include the Sewol ferry issue in the reasons for her removal, but it is the No. 1 cause in the people’s mind. April 16, 2014 is when Park’s collapse began. She tried to hide her incompetence, which could not be hidden, and tried to avoid responsibility, which could not be avoided, resulting in her political demise.”