By Park Moo-jong
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic theologian, left an immortal saying in his posthumous collection of fragments on theology and philosophy, "Pensees (Thoughts)" published in 1670: "Man is a reed, the weakest of nature, but he is a thinking reed."
The great philosopher of the 17th century, who died young at the age of 39, defined the thinking reed as follows: "There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous."
It is not that easy to find the righteous who think they are sinners around us in this time of ever-intensifying competition and confrontation in the flood of fake news and mudslinging. But it is not that difficult to find sinners who think they are righteous.
A miserable story of a "former" righteous man who must think he is a sinner made headlines last week, having many people click their tongues.
The real news from the Philippines was the arrest of Kim Dae-up, 58, the very crucial figure who negatively influenced the 2002 presidential election won by Roh Moo-hyun (1946-2009) from the then opposition Millennium Democratic Party against much fancied Lee Hoi-chang from the then Grand National Party.
Kim, who fled to the Philippines three years ago as a fraud suspect and a fugitive wanted by Interpol, was not such a "righteous man" whom the people saw 17 years ago.
His poor appearance in a wheelchair on TV was a shock to the people who must not have thought about him in a long time.
Seventeen years ago, Kim, who used to be a broker working for military service exemptions, made a bombshell disclosure at the height of the presidential campaign: The son of the front-runner Lee from the ruling party had dodged the draft by forging medical records and his party had an emergency meeting to cover it up.
Kim was a savior of Roh who was fighting a hard battle against Lee. Roh managed to turn the tables to his advantage, probably thanks to Kim's draft-dodging allegation against Lee's son.
Rep. Choo Mi-ae, who led the present ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) from 2016 to 2018, praised Kim as a "brave citizen." And many other members of her party labeled him a "righteous man with a faith to find the truth."
Rep. Lee Hae-chan, now chairman of the ruling DPK, added fuel to Kim's claim, saying that the prosecution asked "us to take issue with the allegation in an interpellation session of the National Assembly."
In conclusion, Kim's disclosure was proved to be a lie just two months before the voting. But Kim already went into hiding and the prosecution made a bizarre decision that taking judicial action against a reporter of crimes was not right.
But Lee Hoi-chang was already losing popularity due to the fake allegation with his approval rating nose-diving as low as 11.8 percent. The truth evaporated. Roh became the president of the Republic of Korea with a narrow margin of 2.3 percentage points or 570,000 votes.
Kim's lie reminds the people of a recent case involving a "righteous" person, not a man, but woman this time, featuring Ms. Yoon Ji-ho, a self-claimed close friend of the late actress Jang Ja-yeon, who committed suicide in 2009 after leaving a note that her agent forced her to attend drinking parties and offer sexual services to 31 prominent figures and journalists.
Yoon claimed to have been a witness to the sexual abuse and corruption scandal reopened by a call from President Moon Jae-in for a thorough investigation and she raised funds from citizens to help pay for her protection as a witness under the support and protection of some ruling party lawmakers, who praised her as a "righteous person."
Yoon flew to Canada in April after she was criminally sued for her alleged lies. Hundreds of donors to the fund filed a class action against her to get their money back.
As expected, the politicians ― who had come out to become her guardian angels calling her a righteous person ― are now keeping their silence because they have no idea about her behavior. They must be living up to the old proverb: Speech is sliver, silence is golden.
Where have all the lawmakers, who lauded Kim and Ms. Yoon as righteous persons, gone? What cowardly behavior!
If not, forget it?
No. Kim's case should be reopened as soon as he is sent back home from the Philippines to determine whether his draft-evasion allegation was plotted behind the scenes by political forces. The politicians who praised him and her should come out to help find the truth, if they do not want to become cowards. But I don't expect them to do so.
It's sad, so sad that those who suffer damage from such lies have no way to recover it.
Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.
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The great philosopher of the 17th century, who died young at the age of 39, defined the thinking reed as follows: "There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous."
It is not that easy to find the righteous who think they are sinners around us in this time of ever-intensifying competition and confrontation in the flood of fake news and mudslinging. But it is not that difficult to find sinners who think they are righteous.
A miserable story of a "former" righteous man who must think he is a sinner made headlines last week, having many people click their tongues.
The real news from the Philippines was the arrest of Kim Dae-up, 58, the very crucial figure who negatively influenced the 2002 presidential election won by Roh Moo-hyun (1946-2009) from the then opposition Millennium Democratic Party against much fancied Lee Hoi-chang from the then Grand National Party.
Kim, who fled to the Philippines three years ago as a fraud suspect and a fugitive wanted by Interpol, was not such a "righteous man" whom the people saw 17 years ago.
His poor appearance in a wheelchair on TV was a shock to the people who must not have thought about him in a long time.
Seventeen years ago, Kim, who used to be a broker working for military service exemptions, made a bombshell disclosure at the height of the presidential campaign: The son of the front-runner Lee from the ruling party had dodged the draft by forging medical records and his party had an emergency meeting to cover it up.
Kim was a savior of Roh who was fighting a hard battle against Lee. Roh managed to turn the tables to his advantage, probably thanks to Kim's draft-dodging allegation against Lee's son.
Rep. Choo Mi-ae, who led the present ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) from 2016 to 2018, praised Kim as a "brave citizen." And many other members of her party labeled him a "righteous man with a faith to find the truth."
Rep. Lee Hae-chan, now chairman of the ruling DPK, added fuel to Kim's claim, saying that the prosecution asked "us to take issue with the allegation in an interpellation session of the National Assembly."
In conclusion, Kim's disclosure was proved to be a lie just two months before the voting. But Kim already went into hiding and the prosecution made a bizarre decision that taking judicial action against a reporter of crimes was not right.
But Lee Hoi-chang was already losing popularity due to the fake allegation with his approval rating nose-diving as low as 11.8 percent. The truth evaporated. Roh became the president of the Republic of Korea with a narrow margin of 2.3 percentage points or 570,000 votes.
Kim's lie reminds the people of a recent case involving a "righteous" person, not a man, but woman this time, featuring Ms. Yoon Ji-ho, a self-claimed close friend of the late actress Jang Ja-yeon, who committed suicide in 2009 after leaving a note that her agent forced her to attend drinking parties and offer sexual services to 31 prominent figures and journalists.
Yoon claimed to have been a witness to the sexual abuse and corruption scandal reopened by a call from President Moon Jae-in for a thorough investigation and she raised funds from citizens to help pay for her protection as a witness under the support and protection of some ruling party lawmakers, who praised her as a "righteous person."
Yoon flew to Canada in April after she was criminally sued for her alleged lies. Hundreds of donors to the fund filed a class action against her to get their money back.
As expected, the politicians ― who had come out to become her guardian angels calling her a righteous person ― are now keeping their silence because they have no idea about her behavior. They must be living up to the old proverb: Speech is sliver, silence is golden.
Where have all the lawmakers, who lauded Kim and Ms. Yoon as righteous persons, gone? What cowardly behavior!
If not, forget it?
No. Kim's case should be reopened as soon as he is sent back home from the Philippines to determine whether his draft-evasion allegation was plotted behind the scenes by political forces. The politicians who praised him and her should come out to help find the truth, if they do not want to become cowards. But I don't expect them to do so.
It's sad, so sad that those who suffer damage from such lies have no way to recover it.
Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.
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