Tuition hike rekindles spirit of 1987

Students leave Myeongdong Cathedral in a bus on June 15, 1987 after a six-day sit-in protest inside the church. The students had demanded the release of clerics who had been arrested by the police during the June 10 Democracy Movement.

/ Korea Times file

By Lee Tae-hoon/ Yun Suh-young

Woo Sang-ho, former student activist and legislator, will never forget June of 24 years ago.

On June 10, 1987, the then-head of Yonsei University students’ association and fellow students took to the streets outraged by the government’s oppression and the loss of a friend, Lee Han-yeol.

“I saw him dying right in front of me after he was hit by a tear gas canister fired by riot police while participating in a campus protest organized by me that day on May 9,” the former spokesman of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) recalled.

Lee’s death prompted the June Democracy Movement _ nationwide protests against the autocratic Chun Doo-hwan administration that took place from June 10 to June 29, 1987. Earlier in that year, the initial cover-up of the death by torture of another collegian, Park Jong-chul, preceded Lee’s death.

The incident led to students’ demand for the truth about Park’s death and democracy.

Rep. Chung Dong-young of the main opposition Democratic Party, left, and Rep. Lee Jung-hee, chairwoman of the Democratic Labor Party, are, with candles in their hands, surrounded by crowds at Cheonggye Square, June 7. They joined the demand to halve college tuition. / Yonhap

Their push came to shove when middle-class workers joined in the protests that eventually led the then head of the governing party, Roh Tae-woo, to announce that the government would hold a direct presidential election on June 29, 1987.

The former authoritarian governments had barred direct elections. Roh was later elected president.

Fast forward to June 10, 2011; collegians are taking to the central streets of Seoul, with candles, to demand a more reasonable tuition rate.

They are not exactly calling for justice or democracy, but what underlies their protests is the free, uncompromising spirit and dedication for the public interest.

Lee In-young, then-president of the Korea University’s student association, and now a member of the DP’s decision-making Supreme Council, is an advocate of the ongoing candlelit protests by college students.

“Many of the June generation are supporting the tuition cut protest as advisors and the parents of the young demonstrators,’’ Lee said.

“We believe they are doing the right thing for the right reason.”

He pointed out that those who took to the streets are people who not only represent their interests, but also many of the voiceless and underprivileged students who have been too shy to speak up.

The times are different and protests are much more peaceful.

Police are much more cautious about arresting protesters, as opposed to the late 1980s, when it was common that just standing in a group was considered an offense.

Some of the college students participating in the drive for “half-price tuition” also find a common thread with the June democracy movement.

They are demanding President Lee Myung-bak keep his campaign pledge to slash college tuition fees by half.

“The protests these days are rather focused on their own survival,” said Bae Seon-young, a senior at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

“The scale of the goal might seem narrower but it may work as a stepping stone for the greater good in the end.”

She noted that it may be seen as a fight for democracy in the sense that it tries to retrieve the rights of the have-nots.

“I don’t think a government that only supports the privileged is a proper democracy,” she said.

College students are demanding the halving of tuition, which averages about 10 million won ($9,230) per year for private colleges, since late May.

The educational cost in the nation has always been top priority for Koreans who are known for their zeal to educate their children.

Having built the world’s 13th largest economy from the dust of the Korean War (1950-1953) and industrialized at a turbo-charged pace, education for Koreans was one certified way to a better life irrespective of class and background.

However, as the country’s wealth grew, everything including educational costs has risen, posing a challenge to a generation already suffering from stiffer competition in the job market.

Critics, however, say the snowballing tuition issue has coincided with the political parties’ headlong rush to put forth so-called “populist” policies ahead of major elections next year.

They say both the ruling Grand National Party and the DP are touting “half-price tuition” or even “free tuition” without a proper budget review in the hopes of winning the general election to pick lawmakers next April and the presidential election in December.

Not all students are sympathetic with the students’ collective action.

Kang Yoon-seung, a senior at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, argues that students should take responsibility for choosing expensive private colleges.

“In the past, university students fought for the ‘greater good’ as can be explained from their struggles against dictatorship,” he said.

“Nowadays, however, students tend to fight for their own interests. Naturally, opinions differ about the protest.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said Friday that while it was desirable that collegians were putting forth diverse opinions about tuition, an expression through collective action was not a resolution to the problem.