General Society: Society: News: Hankyoreh Mobile

“I was excited and trembling!” On the 3rd, Kim Han-gyeol (18) made a pre-voting for the by-election of the mayor of Seoul. It is the’first voting’ in my life. He was fluttering and trembling, but he said, “I don’t have a promise to reach out to me.” “I watched the pledge book and YouTube video eagerly, but there were few pledges related to youth. Even the pledge that I don’t like is the expression’student’ and it’s related to the entrance exam, so it seemed like a pledge for parents who have young children, not teenagers.” Choi Sun-young, 18, who was planning to vote for the first time in her life in the Seoul Mayor’s election on the 7th, was also contemplated. “I am sorry that there are only one or two youth-related pledges, and even those are not specific and only abstract content. I have a sense of responsibility that I have to think deeply because my decision will affect the outcome.” Following the general election in April last year, this re-election is the second election to be held after lowering the election age from 19 years old to 18 years old. However, the’youth’ was still out of interest in the re-election. On the 4th, ahead of the 4·7 re-election, the youth heard voices about the elections and necessary pledges. Kim Han-gyeol (18) and Choi Sun-young (18), a third grader in a specialized high school in Seoul, and the voters of this election, Kim Chan (16), a freshman in a general high school in Busan, and Kim Sun-kyung (18), a senior in a general high school in Gyeonggi-do. We met through the conference platform’Zoom’. The youth generally expressed regret about the pledges of the candidates of the Seoul and Busan mayors and the way they campaigned. “I think youth voters are completely excluded from the election. I am not a voter, but I was curious about what pledges are for young people, so I looked closely, but in the first place, it was difficult to find the word youth in the pledge book. Even if they appear occasionally, they are depicted as students who study unconditionally. Even at our ages, there are cases where we have already gotten a job and do not work or go to school.” (Kim Seon-kyung) “Of the expressions that candidates use a lot,’I will pass on a good world and a better world to our children’ I can feel it. Even though there are youth voters, youths seem to be objectified not as beings who directly select candidates, but as beings that candidates have to do for something.” (Kim Chan) Teenagers complain that they suffer from discrimination, such as not receiving business cards even in the process of candidates’ campaigns. . “While campaigning at the bus stop on the road, he didn’t give out business cards to me or other students. I don’t think he was conscious that even a student wearing a school uniform could be a voter.” (Seon-Young Choi) “When I was wearing a school uniform on the road, I couldn’t get a candidate business card. I got a business card.” (Han-Gyeol Kim) “(Listening to my friends), a youth doesn’t recognize equal worth as a citizen and says,’It’s not worth campaigning for youth, it’s not helpful to us. When I asked,’What kind of pledges and policies do you think you need?’, various policy proposals surrounding the lives of youth poured out. The word they mentioned the most was’youth human rights’. “It seems that existing policies often only view youth as passive objects of care and education. Of course, such a policy is also necessary, but I think a more diverse policy dealing with the human rights of youth is needed. I hope we can also solve the problem of the out-of-home youth not being guaranteed the right to live safely in the community, and the problem that adolescents cannot receive proper medical treatment if they go to the psychiatric department alone without a guardian.” (Kim Chan) I think we need a policy that applies. If I become a candidate for the mayor, I would like to use the slogan’Let’s expand’ in the sense of expanding the scope of the policy.” (Seonyoung Choi) A policy to solve the problems they feel in real life is necessary, such as revising school rules that contain elements of human rights violations. I put my mouth together. “The most basic, but I think the things that are not well kept are the human rights of children and adolescents. There are still school rules that infringe on human rights such as hair and dress regulations, and there are a lot of things that are stipulated in the student human rights ordinances that are wrong, but are not well observed in school.” (Kim Han-gyeol) There is also a school rule that says,’You must not hold your hand.’ This instructional rule itself is a problem, but it’s also strange to limit dating partners as’male and female’. I wish there was also a policy related to anti-discrimination” (Kim Sun-kyung) Some voices said that the violation of learning rights caused by Corona 19 should be resolved. “Last year, I went to school every other week with Corona 19, and I felt that I couldn’t do all the necessary studies at school, so I went to academy for the first time since the end of last year. I think the biggest problem is the violation of the right to study.” There are some things that cannot be solved with non-face-to-face classes, so I think we should consider system changes such as reducing the number of students per class and the number of legal school days so that they can attend school even in a disaster situation.” Pinched. “There are 27 students in my class, and it was almost all that was guided me to put 10 election-related brochures in the corner of the classroom. As I voted, I was in a hurry because I didn’t know how to fold the election paper. I hope that education related to elections will be strengthened a bit more.” (Kim Han-gyeol) “I have a lot of friends who don’t know because they don’t know much even though they’re old enough to vote. I think education should be supported as the election age has increased.” (Choi Seon-young) They stressed that “there is a need for a change of perception” to the stiff gaze of youth voting and political participation. “If you say that adolescents participate in politics, there seems to be a perception like’Aren’t you not studying?’ Like the Gwangju Student Anti-Japanese Movement (1929), there are many cases where youth became the main pillar of social change.” (Kim Seon-kyung) “As some politicians are concerned, schools become a political field, or students say the words of teachers. I didn’t get swayed by it. I would like to see young people not as citizens of the future, but as one voter who lives with them in the present.” (Kim Han-gyeol) Reporter Kim Yoon-joo [email protected]