[KS] Re: To the Observer of Korean Politics

[Pankaj Mohan]

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I would like to know what the so-called 'observer of Korean politics' 
has to say about the students of China who opposed in the spring of 
1989 the PRC regime, or to borrow his expression, although grafted in 
a different geographical context (with the cute inverted comma 
intact), 'the so-called "cruel" dictators who implemented  policies 
that led to enriching the lives of the  multitudes'. The military 
junta of Burma uses the same economic rationale to justify its 
suppression of human rights. This elitist approach towards human 
rights and democracy is an affront to human intelligence, because it 
implies that those who wield guns have legitimate power to herd the 
common people like a flock of sheep and to impose their whims on 
them, as if the poor and uneducated people don't know where their 
interests lie and how to shape their own destinies. Every human 
being, whether rich or poor, educated or illiterate, has a right to 
live a life of dignity. Human right is not a privilege, but a 
birthright of mankind. There are people in every society, however 
advanced, who do not know how to "handle" democracy, but it does not 
mean that democratic rights are to be confined only to graduates of 
ivy-league colleges.

It is naive to assume that 'dictatorial politics' is a necessary 
precondition of  economic growth. There is no reason to believe that 
had DJ been elected to presidency in 1971, Korea's economic 
development would have stopped.  Indeed, DJ as a legitimate occupant 
of the Blue House would not have felt the need to whip up 
anti-communist hysteria, and the national resources would have been 
channeled more profitably towards developmental programs and balanced 
distribution of wealth instead of financing KCIA's torture-chambers, 
abductions, rape, fakely 'suicided' dissidents or even brazen 
executions of innocent citizens on trumped-up charges (with mutilated 
bodies arbitrarily cremated). Road to democracy has not to be soaked 
in blood.

The observer's comments on Kim Da-jung as  ' having earned his 
reputation from the world "outside" of Korea" is also quite 
bewildering. If he earned his reputation outside Korea, how did he 
manage to garner 45% percent votes in the 1971 election.

And Mr observer, ordinary Korean "citizens" do not go about their 
daily lives "detached" from the international world of Kim D.J. Most 
of them rejoice DJ's international recognition, while those who 
prefer to live in the shade of fossilized Macarthian politics resent 
it. And you don't need to worry whether  Kim DJ and dozens of other 
Nobel laureates of the year will use their prize money to buy 'soju' 
for themselves or some  rice for North Korea. It is their personal 
business.

Pankaj Mohan
-- 
Dr Pankaj N. Mohan
Teaching Fellow
Department of Asian Studies
University of Copenhagen
Leifsgade 33, 5, Københavns S., DK-2300
Tel: +45 35328844 (Work) +45 32584310 (Residence)
email: mohan at hum.ku.dk
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