Democracy at stake, Economy in crisis, Security at risk

Joseph H. Chung, Ph.D (정희수) Professor of economics, Quebec University in Quebec (UQAM)

(지난 호에 이어)

?2008-20017: Period of PJCF government by Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013) and Park Geun-hye (2013-2017)

This period was marked by a strong comeback of the PJCF. Under presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, the PJCF became successful in three fields of battle.

First, the distribution of income and assets was made more unequal through lower corporate taxes, more grants to PJCF-friendly institutions and individuals and, above all, the cutting of spending for the ordinary people's wellbeing.

The notorious case of embezzling public funds were the 4-River Development Project involving billions of US dollars and so-called the Natural Resource Diplomacy. Nobody knows how much money went to the pockets of the PJCF members.

Second, the North-South tension was made to increase by stopping all North-South relations including the closing of the Gaesung Industrial Complex and the denial of the access to Gum-gwang-san tourist resort facilities.

Third, the PJCF was successful in taking out from the school history text books the story of the crime against comfort women. In addition, they put in the school history text books the Japanese claim that Japanese occupation of Korea was for the good of Korea.

This was indeed a big victory for the PJCF. But, in order to protect this victory, the PJCF deployed the following methods of discouraging dissidence.

First, the PJCF media justified the wrong doings of the PJCF and criticized the normal doings of the dissidents.

Second, the police, the prosecutors and court judges overlooked the wrong doings of the PJCF accused the dissidents for fabricated crimes.

Third, they produced a black list of 10,000 artists, cinema people, intellectuals and possible dissidents and reduced or stopped official subsidies.

Fourth, they even eliminated in 2014 a legally constituted political party of liberal ideology, the Unified Progressive Party.

Fifth, prominent leaders of the PLNF were victims of illegal incarceration or, worse, they were victims of frame up of sexual misconduct so that they cannot continue their political leadership.

These measures did not involve guns and tortures, but they were quite effective in discouraging dissidence.

But, the PLNF were not idle. They stood up and bravely fought back. For eight months from august 2016 to April 2017, not less than 17,000,000 people of all walks of the society and of all ages went down to the streets and shouted the impeachment of Park Geun-hye who stepped down as president and went to prison for corruption, abuse of power and incapability to run the government.

In short, during the 9-year period, the government of the PJCF put almost everything they had to destroy the PLNF but they did not foresee the impact of the Candle-Light Revolution.

?2017-2022: Period of PLNF government of Moon Jae-in (2017-2022)

During this period, the PLNF government of Moon Jae-in hit hard the core of the PJCF making them to feel threatened to lose their wealth and privileges.

This period was marked by the brilliant success of the Moon Jae-in government's national policies and desperate counter attack of the PJCF through two strategies to destroy the PLNF government of Moon.

Being threatened by Moon's anti-corruption culture of PJCF and their friends, they fought back.

Having lost the election, they used the tactic they had been using all these years. These are the conspiracies of the prosecutors supported by the corrupted media.

The prosecutors gave themselves two tactics.

First, they eliminated potential PLNF leaders to succeed Moon Je-in in the future through the fabricated evidences of sexual abuse or bribes. Several potential leaders of PLNF were put in prison by the prosecutors and some others killed themselves due to the pressure punt on their families by the PJCF media and prosecutors.

Second, the PJCF media was given two functions. To begin with, they supported prosecutors' criminal operation of accusing the PLNF for fabricated evidence of crime and the media's job was to print whatever the prosecutors tell them. In other words, the PJCF media performed the kangaroo court to condemn the innocent before the court judgment.

Moreover, the mission of the PJCF media was to discredit whatever the Moon's government did. They never printed or did broadcast Moon's success as national leaders or international leader.

Moon's visit to various countries for the promotion of Korea's interests were seldom published or aired on TV. On the other hand, if Moon's government makes a slight mistake, it becomes a federal case and they dramatize it as if it would bring the end of Korea.

Despite the violent anti-Moon tactics of PJCF, the government of Moon was able to accomplish major reforms for the benefit of all Koreans not just for the elite group of the PJCF.

President Moon Jae-in challenged the PJCF in four areas of dispute which were vital for the survival of the PJCF: unequal income distribution, the corruption culture, North-South tension and Japanese neo-colonialism. 

Unequal Income Distribution: The measures adopted by Moon Jae-in in order to assure more equal income distribution included the following: reduction of grants and subsidies to Chaebols, increase of corporate tax, creation of more jobs through the development of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), the increase of minimum wage, more income transfer to the poor and the increase of the supply of public goods such as free lunch for school kids, more coverage of medical care insurance.

Corruption Culture: The measures designed to destroy the corruption culture consisted of the following:

First, the cabinet ministers, advisors and other key positions in the government were corruption-free. (다음 호에 계속)

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