[이하경 칼럼] Is Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye’s amnesty playing with fire aimed at splitting the opposition party?

The ominous feelings became reality. The British Financial Times said on the 5th in an editorial titled’Dangerous Moments of American Democracy’, “an undeclared coup d’état is being attempted.” No way, but the next day there was a bloodshed.

It was a coup attempt that thousands of Trump supporters attempted to block the election of the next U.S. president into the Capitol. American democracy crashed the moment the incumbent president, the defender of the Constitution, called the constitutional-breaking traitor “Great patriot.”

Tocqueville, a former judge of the Versailles Court in France in 1831, admired the democracy of a new continent without discrimination. At the same time, he said, “It is more to be wary of not having sufficient guarantees against tyranny rather than excessive freedom” (“American Democracy”). It’s an amazing foresight.

The crisis in the United States has an original sin in mainstream Washington politics, which was insensitive to polarization after globalization. Biden, the new owner of the White House, understands the tears of the poor, the minority and the black. But his eyes, ears, and mouth are full of greedy Wall Street and lobbyists who represent corporate interests. “The problem with Biden is to still consider those he knew before he became lobbyists as not lobbyists,” said Jeff Hauser of the Economic Policy Institute (CEPR), a progressive think tank. The age of division will not end easily.

How about the Korean Peninsula, a space of fateful life where we cannot escape for a single moment? The pain of polarization is exacerbated by the Corona 19 pandemic. The Piketti Index, which represents the degree of inequality, is rather soaring in the case of the Moon government, which advocated progress. In the meantime, it is not enough to be aimed at North Korea and guns, so they fight to death in the south. Two former presidents, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye of the elderly, are wearing heavy swords on their necks on the charge of ‘destruction.’ The conservative camp is refining it, saying, “Let’s get the government back and send Moon Jae-in to prison.”

Therefore, every time the president changes, the Republic of Korea has to start struggling as a new country with a five-year time limit. The talent pool is completely depleted due to beating the people of the past regime. As the incompetent loyalists dominate the key positions, the Moon administration’s ability to exclaim and internalize is the lowest ever. When the Democratic Party leader Lee Nak-yeon said, “I will suggest amnesty to the president for integration,” the Blue House responded, “We can discuss.” The pro-moon hard-liners protested, saying, “If you forgive easily, you will grow your strength again and destroy democracy” (Rep. Kim Yong-min), but the trend is catching.

However, if there is a political and engineering intention to divide the opposition party ahead of the election, the pardon card must be collected. It is also nonsense that only former President Park will pardon’selection’. This is because the former president’s condemnation is to admit that it is political repression stemming from pro-nuclear anger that “Lee Myung-bak killed Roh Moo-hyun.”

It is necessary to reflect on former President Kim Dae-jung’s amnesty philosophy. He was sentenced to death in 1980 during the new military commander Doo-Hwan Chun, and every moment he was terrified of death. “I was surprised to hear the sound of footsteps outside,” he said. In the final statement, which was also a will, he said, “I would like to ask that political retaliation will not be practiced again in this land.”

It was the United States that saved Kim Dae-jung from the hands of former President Chun Doo-hwan. President Carter, who was defeated in the presidential election, asked Reagan-elect to “save Kim Dae-jung alive.” Reagan demanded’commutation of Kim Dae-jung’ as a prerequisite for Chun Doo-hwan, who clings to the summit with him, and carried it through.

Immediately after Kim Dae-jung was elected president in 1997, he proposed to President Kim Young-sam and pardoned Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo. It means forgiving an unforgivable’enemy’. Since taking office, Kim Dae-jung has invited all of the former presidents inside and outside the Blue House at least once a quarter. “People can only know the truth by going through it,” said Chun Doo-hwan’s wife, Lee Soon-ja.

Kim Dae-jung’s courtesy of’Marshal’ as an elder of the state transcends the dimension of personal haewon (解冤). It was the result of the belief that it would stop political retaliation because only reconciliation and integration are the driving force behind a divided nation. Through this, Kim Dae-jung has accumulated political trust assets of progress, conservatism, and reconciliation between Yeong and Honam. Therefore, through labor-management agreements, it was possible to reform labor and overcome the crisis of the foreign exchange crisis. It also solved the difficulties of consolidation of national health insurance and division of medicine. The first inter-Korean summit was also the result of national unity.

The collapse of American democracy was not because of the lack of dollars or the lack of advanced weapons. Because internal integration failed. In divided country Korea, internal integration is more urgent. The community is shattered when the card of consolidation called pardon is approached with a political play of fire.

President Moon did not have such achievements for 3 years and 7 months. Now, even at the core of the regime, it is said that “clearing redemption is not an achievement.” If even one achievement is to remain in history, national unity is urgent. I hope that the amnesty will be the starting point of integration, not division and curse.

Lee Ha-kyung Joo-pil, Vice President