A new year has begun. Looking back, the year past was exhausting and depressing. The country failed to produce anything of decent communal value. That is a misfortune brought about by selfishness and foolishness. The new year must not be a repeat performance. The new dawn of realization must take off with great speed. We should commence on the new year of hope with this ardent mindset expressed as a loud cry.
It was an unproductive year for politics because of the arrogance of the old establishment and the incompetence of the ruling camp. The National Security Law (NSL), which so cruelly suppresses the people's freedom and civil rights, is still in force despite how more than 1,000 people are out fighting it in the cold of winter with a hunger strike. The work of reform is still piled high. Instead of being awake to the cause of reform, the ruling camp chose a course of pragmatic self-censorship and joined in an illicit union with the old establishment, the result being that it was unable to fulfill its calling for reform even with a majority in the National Assembly. By getting involved in the war of aggression in Iraq, it abandoned its democratic reform identity. The old establishment forces attempted to seize power by impeaching the president, and thwarted reform with all sorts of violent methods such as red-baiting and blockading National Assembly activities. The Constitutional Court fought change with a "customary constitution." That led to a crisis in constitutional rule based in the division of the three branches of government by halting one of the president's key policies.
The economy has been unable to get out of its state of stagnation for more than four years now. Domestic consumption shows no sign of picking up again, thanks to a loss in consumer confidence because of the consistently high number of persons with bad credit, household debt, and unstable employment. The extreme divisions between income groups, social classes, region, and industries and imbalanced growth have become serious enough to threaten sustainable growth in our society. The waves of neo-liberalism is uprooting many lives and dissolving the structure of society, but one is helpless in fighting it.
The external challenges that could be summarized by the North Korean nuclear issue have been quite serious. The six-party talks have been stalled for six months, and overall, intra-Korean relations have become stuck. This year the United States' Bush Administration's policies for its second term will materialize. We are at a critical juncture that will determine whether the North Korean nuclear issue is resolved peacefully with no glitches.
If we are unable to overcome the rough challenges that exist in the rapidly changing political situation we will fall behind. We need more than the usual resolve and strategy if we are going to survive and leap forward. We must make the surrounding conditions work to our advantage, and engage in thorough management of various policies that will strengthen national competitiveness. Also, we needed to do all possible to encourage a total return of the country's vitality.
Last year we experienced major disappointment and pain as reform was frustrated, but it will be reform with which we rise again. We must believe in the legitimacy and merits of reform. We must pursue social change with the belief in and dedication to the universal values of civil rights, peace, democracy, and human dignity. In addition, there needs to be careful consideration in that process, so that reform is made to lead to reconciliation. Only reform that is mature in such a way will guarantee hope. There needs to be a shared understanding that the hope is for the whole of our society. Only when social unity is the premise will the whole of the country's productivity rise.
Instead of just trying to maintain the status quo in intra-Korean relations as we dealt with the nuclear issue, we need to be more active in removing factors that contribute to instability. It was quite natural for president Roh Moo Hyun to declare, "there must be no war" and work to take the lead in resolving the nuclear issue, since Korea is the party most directly involved in what is a question of survival. That work must progress to constructive policies of peace, including the pursuit of an intra-Korean summit. We understand the security situation North Korea finds itself in, but we absolutely cannot accept nuclear arms on the Korean peninsula, on which lives the Korean nation. We call on the North to think strategically and make the right decision on this issue. We would also like to see the North hurry to restore intra-Korean relations.
The next most urgent task will be building a foundation on which politics might function properly. The political process needs to abandon the bureaucratic consciousness that originated in the growth-before-all-else thinking of the development dictatorships, and the parties and the National Assembly must return to their rightful places to produce policy. The system of representation must be repaired so that parliamentary activities accurately represent the will of the majority of the people. There also needs to be a change in the system so that ideological confrontation might turn into confrontation over policy. It is time to start talking about the framework of the constitution, which is overly focused on keeping the executive branch in check as a reaction to military authoritarianism.
The prescription for economic recovery must be focused on alleviating the difficulties of the common people. Without improvement in their impoverished lives it will be too much to expect that society will have hope and the economy will have energy. The crisis and contradictions of polarization brought about by the barbarity of neo-liberalism must be dealt with by the government. To that end, it must present the country with a clear economic vision in the form of a positive cycle of growth and distribution. There needs to be an expansion of welfare, if also to overcome the limits of growth without employment and in doing so stimulate domestic growth.
We must call for those who the "haves" to have an awakening, to make concessions, and empty their hearts, in order to allow for the cultivation of hope based on reform. The world has turned towards reconciliation well over a decade ago, and yet the old establishment is still unable to come out of the deep well of the Cold War. We will be unable to keep up with the tail end of the era of change. The old establishment ways of a public political party is particularly serious as it blocks the country's future. It must be seen for how it is a product of regional confrontation. Another urgent task for the year ahead is the re-establishment of the task of the media, needed for a pluralistic society and the right kind of reform. Lately the media has served more as a guard dog for the old establishment than as a watch dog keeping power in check, and must not be overlooked in the context of social reform.
If you look at things closely, our society is not without elements of hope. Professor Hwang Woo Suk's embryonic stem cell cloning research is a global accomplishment that is hope for Korean science. It is encouraging that Korea is recognized as an internet leader and that the "Korean wave" sensation is sweeping Asia. The Gaeseong industrial complex in the North has become a landmark on to reunification. All around there are precious embers that might revive our social energy.
The problem will be restoring community consciousness. In this the 60th year since Liberation let us heal the conflict and discrimination and spare out community and achieve a new day of human liberation through mutual recognition, respect, and cooperation. We will surely have that energy again if we all open our hearts with a spirit of partnership and grab hands for reform, reconciliation, and unity.
The Hankyoreh, 1 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Rekindle That Energy With Change and Unity |
