The Year of 'Fight for Right'

By Park Moo-jong

A group of college professors have chosen "pa sa hyeon jeong (파사현정:破邪顯正)" as the four Chinese-character phrase for what they say best describes Korean society in the year of 2017.

The phrase means literally "breaking false doctrines and bringing out the right," namely "a fight for right against wrong."

The "Professors Times" or "Kyosu Sinmun," a weekly on college education information, asked 1,000 professors from across the nation and 34 percent of them chose the idiom.

The choice of the phrase by the professors definitely supports President Moon Jae-in's ambitious drive to annihilate what he calls "deep-rooted evils" of the past as he has vowed far-reaching reforms to terminate the alleged accumulated ills of previous governments.

No wonder, the year's idiom portrays all the ups and downs of the year, highlighted by the candlelit protests of "progressive" citizens and Moon supporters to protest the Choi Soon-sil scandal, and also by the nation's impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye last December.

It is unlikely that foreigners who have no knowledge of Chinese characters and the four-letter idioms can understand what the phrase accurately means.

But if they understand what Koreans have experienced since Park was dismissed after the Constitutional Court approved the parliamentary impeachment against her, and Moon was elected to succeed his disgraced predecessor, the phrase may be not that difficult to grasp.

In short, the professors defined 2017 as the "Year of the Fight for Right."

Coincidentally, President Moon used the idiom during his presidential campaign on Facebook, May 3, six days before the May 9 election, saying, "(We) have to build a righteous society first of all for all the people to be noble and equal ... when the fight for the rights of the press succeeds, I believe people's dignity, equality and freedom will be kept ..."

The weekly began to designate a four-Chinese letter idiom that can illustrate our society each year since 2001 with the choice of "o ri mu jung (五里霧中)" as the year's word, literally meaning "in a fog of about two kilometers." Thus, it could be interpreted as the complicated and unpredictable political situation during the last years of the Kim Dae-jung government (1998-2003)

The phrase for 2002 was "i hap jip san" (meeting and parting), portraying the then changes in the alignment of political parties.

For the year 2003, the professors chose the phrase, "u wang jwa wang (右往左往)" meaning "going this way and that," "running about in confusion" or "rushing about to no purpose, and few disputed their choice." Namely, it was the "Year of Confusion."

The term represented the chaotic situation that persisted throughout the entire year of 2003, the first year of the late President Roh Moo-hyun in office, featuring confusion in political, diplomatic, economic and social policies, a protracted recession, dirty battles between interest groups, including politicians, and disruption.

Ironically, this year's phrase, "pa sa hyeon jeong," was the very one for 2012, when Park was elected as the nation's first-ever female president in the Dec. 19 election to succeed Lee Myung-bak.

The professors chose the word in "hope" that the new president would dig into a chain of alleged corruption that broke out at the end of Lee's administration (2008-2013) and to find the truth.

Five years later, the idiom was selected again, calling for President Moon to fight for right against wrong by annihilating the deep-rooted evils of the past and to pave the road for a brighter and cleaner society.

This also indicates that our society has not changed much over the past five years.

Looking at the results, the phrase of last year was one of the best that described so accurately what happened during the year: "gun ju min su (君舟民水)," meaning that the people were able to overturn a boat they set afloat for the king.

The people called for then President Park to step down over the influence-peddling scandal involving her friend Choi, both of whom are standing criminal trial under custody. Indeed, the people removed her from office and elected Moon president.

This year's phrase demonstrates the strong will to correct and reform a society tainted by lies, greed, injustice and corruption."

Nothing can be better than the realization of what the phrase means. The Moon administration has gone all-out to root out the corruption of previous governments since he took oath in May, pledging to open a "citizens' era" based on the candlelight civil revolution."

However, what they are doing now appears to be a sort of political revenge that many people are much concerned about. With less effort to design for the future to survive ever-intensifying global competition amid the growing nuclear threats of North Korea, the Moon government is focusing too much on what happened in the past.

As aforementioned, the year of 2003 was the "Year of Confusion." I am afraid that the professors will pick the term again next year, if the government only pushes ahead with its current policies to wipe out the accumulated ills of the past. And this certainly will be a national disaster and the victims will be the people.

Park Moo-jong is the standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English newspaper founded in 1950 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter for the daily since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com