It appears to be just a matter of time before Rep. Shin Ki-nam, chairman of the ruling Uri Party, resigns. It was learned that his late father served as a staff sergeant at the Japanese military police in the 1940s, a fact Shin had knowingly denied through all the years. That Shin had been at the vanguard of the governing camp's campaign to ferret out pro-Japanese collaborators rather comes as a black comedy.
Needless to say, the ruling party leader cannot and need not answer for what his father did. The guilt-by-association system should be a thing of the past. But he committed no less grave of an error by covering up facts. This is hardly forgivable for an elected official, let alone a leader of a political party. In Watergate and ``zipper-gate'' scandals, what mattered more than the incidents themselves were their cover-up attempts and consequent lies.
Shin said he did not know about his father's career or activities in detail and was biding time to confess. That may be true in part, but it is still a clumsy excuse. As a leading politician, he should have known much better about his family background and told all before things broke out. Or, he should not have commented on this issue in the least.
The latest episode shows how difficult _ and important _ it is to shed light on our disgraceful past. In the tumultuous modern history of Korea that underwent colonial days, national division and dictatorial rule, there must have been numerous injurers and injured, some of who are still alive. No one can be free from their past mistakes. There must
be many people like Shin, if everything can be brought to light.
This is not to say, however, the nation should sweep everything under the carpet as if nothing had happened. Rather, the ongoing project on historical reexamination should not be for settling old scores, but overdue national tasks. The shameful past should be settled in order to sever the chains of contradictions to move toward a bright future. We should no longer pass our dark memories and burdens of the past to our future generations.
Regardless of Shin's case, both the ruling and opposition parties need to accelerate their efforts to set history right. They should do their job more fairly and systematically to prevent politicization and exhaustion of national energy. In legislating related acts, they ought to focus on activities rather than the status of suspected collaborators while preventing undeserved victims. It would be best for social leaders to come clean first if they have hidden something.