'You're right, I'm wrong'

By Park Moo-jong

The literally turbulent year of 2020 is drawing to a close amid the never-ending fear of the coronavirus pandemic and ever-worsening social divisions, accelerated by deep-rooted political greed, particularly in this part of the world.

Asked to define this outgoing year in a word, most of us, quite naturally, would choose the dreadful word COVID-19 that forces us to live in a world we have not experienced before as it goes against our daily routines.

The unprecedented global disease in modern society tells us that there is no safety in numbers, ordering us to keep the new rules of social distancing. Namely, "United we fall, divided we stand."

Yet, professors, the very intellectuals of society, had a different idea to best describe the year 2020. They lamented the vicious social and political trend of "never admitting one's own wrongdoings."

The professors chose "我是他非" pronounced "a si ta bi" as a four-letter Chinese idiom to best describe the year of 2020, meaning "I am right, you are wrong." They have done the job annually since 2001.

However, the four-letter Chinese phrase for this year is not listed in dictionary, but a newly-coined one to explain the four-letter Korean acronym with no Chinese letters, "nae-ro-nam-bul," from "(nae) ga hamyeon (ro)mance, (nam)i hamyeon (bul)ryun," literally meaning: "When I cheat, it's romance, when others do, it's adultery."

The best English expression of this Korean acronym would be "double standards," a rule or standard of good behavior that, unfairly, some people are expected to follow or achieve but other people are not, according to English dictionaries.

For an example sentence: The President is being accused of double standards in being tough on law and order, yet allowing his own Cabinet members to escape prosecution for fraud.

For reference, last year's was 共命之鳥 (gong myeong ji jo). Literally translated, it means "bird with a common destiny," namely "a bird with two heads" found in Buddhist scriptures. The two heads, one facing left, the other right, used to fight and argue with each other, even for simple reasons, though they shared the same body.

To be more specific, one of the two heads woke up in the morning and the other in the evening. The former found some delicious fruit and ate it. The jealous latter, out of pique, ate poisonous fruit. Eventually both died.

What a great idiom to best describe the state of South Korea in 2019! Throughout the whole year, the people were suffering from an "all-or-nothing" ideological division between the left in power and the right in shadow, both of whom did little to take care of the public livelihood instead pursuing their own political interests.

This year's phrase, unfortunately, is in line with the one from last year, reflecting the reality that the nation is suffering ceaseless consumptive conflicts in our social and political sectors.

As The Korea Times reported on page 3, Tuesday, quoting professors, the evil trend of passing the buck onto others, notably in the political arena, has not only split national unity, but also has been unhelpful in containing the spread of the pandemic.

Indeed, the term of nae ro nam bul has become one of the most popular words on the lips of people throughout the year, ignited by the scandals involving the family of Cho Kuk, a left-wing "polifessor, (a negative Konglish term for college professors who freely hop between academics and politics with little consideration for their students and schools), who stepped from the post of justice minister 35 days after his appointment in September last year for alleged corruption.

Throughout the year, the majority of our people had no choice but to face with a sigh the stark reality that unfairness and injustice have been rampant in our society with those in power, irrespective of their political affiliation, being busy shifting blame to others without admitting their misdeeds.

While the coronavirus is raging across the nation toward the end of the year, the government is adding to the people's fear by allegedly failing to procure vaccines, with the leaders passing the buck to others. It is crystal clear that the government missed the golden timing to make a bold decision during the vaccine development process.

As the four-letter phrase of the year shows, those who are responsible for making decisions not only on vaccine procurement but on other important policies, on real estate for instance, are only busy claiming that "I'm right, you're wrong," even criticizing the press and the opposition for "fanning the crisis."

Those who are faithfully living up to the four-letter phrase are so brazen-faced, being dead to shame.

I am not happy that the professors selected such a negative phrase as the idiom of the year for 2020, the year of the Rat, though it is "quite challenging, especially health wise, but also financially, with obstacles, impediments and unpredictable situations, which will mainly occur during the first half of the year," according to the Chinese horoscope.

Such a hard year is fading away, anyway. Together with all the people, I hope that we will be able to meet the next year of the Ox when we will be stronger and more diligent like the animal of the year, in saying, "You're right, I am wrong."

I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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.