파벌 투쟁을 위해 바른 정책을 희생시킨 김대중

[역사학도]

Dear Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, they (those from the Four Faction of Yi-Dyansty) had had bad habits of sending into exile each other whenever they came to power. When they (those inherited the factionalism from the Four Faction) sent the ex-President Chun Doo Whan and ex-First Lady into exile to coldest remote place in coldest day in 1988, they were regressing the watch of Korean democracy to nondemocratic politics of earlier centuries.

And this coincides the debate for Perestroika in Russia, the cold Soviet Empire. Indeed, Seoul Olympic was the landmark of Perestroika in Russia. When the Russian nation had a choice between the older Communist system and the newer Perestroika ahead of them, it did not take long. When they saw it was not in their North Korea, but in South Korea of the Free World that the miracle of the Han River, they quickly learned that the Communist's promise of utopia was false after all. Now their new desire was Perestroika, which cost giving up their atomic weapons. This they did in the following years by destroying significant amount of atomic weapons themselves.

And we know this positive change in Russian Empire could be possible because of the vision and effort of the Korean leader Chun Doo Whan for Seoul Olympics. And then what was reason of the punishment of exile by Kim Dae Jung's group? While the positive contribution to solving the problem of Russian atomic bombs came from the 12th President Chun Doo Whan, it was Kim Dae Jung who caused the negative contribution to North Korean nuclear project. It was Kim Dae Jung who later in the year of 2000, stole eight billion dollars to fund Kim Jeong Il's nuclear bomb project. But was there anything pro-democratic when Kim Dae Jung funded the production of Nuclear bombs in North Korea? We know the kind of seed from its fruits. We know the kind of man from its fruits. While from Chun Doo Whan's good leadership we could harvest the solution for the Russian atomic weapons, we have gained the threat of North Korean atomic bombs from Kim Dae Jung's bad leadership.

No less than we cannot justify the crime of Kim Dae Jung's group in 2000, we cannot rationalize his group's punishment against the ex-President Chun in 1988. No less strange is that they sent the ex-First Lady into exile, too. Was there any democratic procedure when they sent her into exile. Was there anything pro-democratic when Kim Young Sam made a political deal with Kim Dae Jung to send her into exile as well? Where is the textbook which teaches that this kind of sever political revenge is democracy.

In fact, this bad practice Kim Dae Jung's group brought from earlier centuries is what makes democracy impossible. If one starts from the worldview that the competing party is the enemy to be sent into exile, democracy become impossible. Democracy can be only possible when you look at the competing party as a partner for shaping right policy. We find the ideal of the plural parties in democracy in that parties exist to help each other for shaping more objective, and therefore, better policy.


(* 윗글은 캐슬린 스티븐스 주한미국대사님께서 2009년 1월 6일에 "Happy New Year!'"(새해 복 많이 받으세요!")란 제목으로 http://cafe.daum.net/issue21/5J2B/124 에 올리신 글에 달아드린 댓글들 중 다섯번째 씨리즈의 댓글들입니다.)


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