Legacy of President Moon Jae-in(9.끝)

 

He came to give the country back to the people

 

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

 

(지난 호에 이어)

 

He has liberated Korea from Japan's economic, political and security neo-colonialism.

 

Thus, President Moon has done a lot for Korea and Koreans. He has done something no other presidents have done.

 

He has made major contribution to the transformation of Korea into a country deserving to be a country (nara-da-oon-nara-나라다운 나라).

Korea has been owned by the powerful and wealthy pro-Japan conservatives. The vast majority of South Koreans have been bystanders watching the fruit of their hard work and sacrifice flowing into the hand of the pro-Japan conservatives and they had to endure the "gap-jil" (harsh mistreatment of the weak by the strong).

 

President Moon has been successful in giving Korea back to its owners, the Korean people, albeit limited

 

President Moon wanted to do more, much more for Korea and the Korean people whom he respected and loved. But, the deep rooted problems did not allow him to go further in given time of five years.

 

President Moon has shown that with proper policy and strong political will power, it is possible to make Korea a country for all, not just for the pro-Japan conservatives.

 

President Moon has shown that it is possible to make Korea a country of justice, equality and prosperity for all. But, there are problems which he could not solve. They are the problems of the judiciary system and the media.

 

It must be pointed out that the Korean prosecutor office is the most powerful and the most corrupted in the world. The prosecutor has the monopoly of criminal investigation right and indictment right. Recently, a law was adopted to limit the abuse of power by the prosecutors. But, under the new PJCSK government of Yoon Suk-yeol, the law is likely to ignored.

 

In most countries, the criminal investigation is performed by the police. Being powerful, the prosecutor is the best ally of the corruption community.

 

The prosecutor is mighty, because there is no operational mechanism to supervise them and bring them to the court.  To make matter even worse, many of the court judges are also member of the corruption community.

 

The prosecutor is the best profession for becoming millionaires in a few years. The bribe money for not indicting the accused is very high. The amount of bribe money increases in function of the reduction of culpability recommended by the prosecutor.

 

In fact, the abuse of power by the prosecutor has been debated for long and by every government. Even some of the conservative lawmakers have tried to institute a legal mechanism to investigate and punish the prosecutors along with other high ranking bureaucrats and politician who are corrupted. This has been a reform which the people have been asking for decades.

 

Moon's government has made the National Assembly to establish by law, on November 10, 2020, the Corruption Investigation Office for High- Ranking Officials (CIOHRO). This is one of many historical achievements of President Moon.

 

There is one reform which is even more difficult to reform. It is the reform of the media. We all expect from the media the production and the diffusion of information which is professional, objective, critical, unbiased useful for public policies designed to promote the welfare for all citizens.

 

Unfortunately, the Korean media do not have these virtues for the simple reason that for last 70 years they have been managed by the conservative governments. The conservative government's media policy is to glorify the conservatives and demonize the progressives.

 

The core of the conservative media policy may be summarized.

 

 

First, it encourages the creation of small media outlets so that they depend on the conservative corruption community for their income.

 

Second, it sets up a mechanism of information coordination. The Chosen Ilbo, the Jung-ang Ilbo and the Tong-ah Ilbo (Cho-Jung-Tong) have the function of coordinating the production and the diffusion of information favourable to the corruption community and demonizing the opposition force.

 

Third, the main source of media income is the conservative corruption community, especially, the major Chaebols.

 

Fourth, illegal and immoral activities of the media are seldom punished because of the collusion between the conservative camp and the penal and judiciary system

 

In fact, the media has been the most formidable enemy of the anti-corruption war of Moon-Jae-in. The reform of media has not yet begun. The government, if it is the progressive one, will have the colossal task of reforming the corrupted media.

 

To sum up, President Moon Jae-in has done a lot for Korea and Koreans to keep his promise of giving Korea back to its owners, the Korean people. He has been successful in doing just that.

 

He has given Korea back to Koreans. But, the new PJCSK government of Yoon Suk-yeol is trying hard to steal it again. That is what makes me worried and sad.

 

 

 

 

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