By all means, the Park Geun-hye government finalized its plan to adopt state authorized history textbooks. This is an act of terrorism against democracy and the Constitution. The government ignored the Constitution, democracy and the opposition of the majority of the people. It also ignored the advice of the international community including the United Nations (UN) and international teachers' organizations. Despite criticism that the government was following in the footsteps of North Korea, Nazi Germany, and Japan's militarism, the government did not bother to even pretend to listen. Thus South Korea's history and history education will return to the 1973 Yushin system. During the Yushin regime, Park Chung-hee suppressed the people by dissolving the National Assembly and proclaiming martial law. This time, the Park Geun-hye government wielded absolute power. We cannot call a country that has no device to stop the reckless actions taken by the government a democratic state. The process of how the incumbent government promoted state designated history textbooks is marked by lies, distortion, fabrication, deterrence, and lack of communication.
The public statement that Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn released yesterday clearly shows this. In his statement, Hwang questioned the existing textbooks claiming that they stated that both North and South Korea were responsible for triggering the Korean War. However, this was a complete hoax, because all the textbooks that passed the government's review state that North Korea invaded the South. Hwang's argument that the textbooks distorted history to make it look like the North Korean government was legitimate is also a serious distortion. He failed to mention that all eight textbooks criticize North Korea's dictatorship and hereditary system passed down through three generations, as well as describe how the citizens, who should be rightfully respected, were starving.
Hwang pointed out that the current textbooks undervalued the significance of the establishment of the government of the Republic of Korea in 1948, but this goes in line with the argument by the New Right, which claims that the date the government was established should be the date that the nation was founded. This is a dangerous view claiming that he will not recognize the legitimacy of the March 1 Movement and the provisional government. If the government will not recognize the legitimacy of the provisional government, do they mean to follow North Korea's perspective?
The press and the academia have already, on numerous accounts, confirmed that the examples of biased views on history cited by Hwang do not exist in the current textbooks. This is not a matter of judgment, but fact. Nevertheless, it is outrageous how the government is fabricating fact and using it as an excuse to promote the state designated textbooks. This would not be possible if the government was not intent on turning students, the pillars of the future, into uniform robots that do not know how to criticize anything. As Hwang pointed out, there are some textbooks that do not include the ROKS Cheonan incident. But the education ministry's guidelines for the textbook did not state that this incident be included. The government is being unreasonable. The issue was never mentioned when the government reviewed and passed the textbooks, and now the government is criticizing the textbooks for not dealing with this incident. Hwang called the textbook by Kyohak Publishing written by the New Right as a "proper" textbook. The textbook describes Japan's exploitation of South Korean rice as rice exports and paints activities by pro-Japanese businessmen as the independence movement. Seeing how Hwang called this the "proper" textbook, it is not difficult to guess at the direction and contents of the future state designated textbooks.
As for concerns that the state designated textbook might glorify pro-Japanese activities and dictatorship, Hwang said, "Our mature society would never tolerate that." But he failed to explain why the government was ignoring the strong opposing views of the "mature" civil society and pushing ahead with the state authorized textbooks. The government is engaging in self-contradictory behavior: ignoring the civil society when the citizens need the state and using the civil society when the government is in need. Hwang described the state designated textbook as restoring normal history education in his statement. This isn't something he should say when the government is driving the entire country, let alone history education, toward abnormal conflict and division.
The government secretly worked on introducing the state authorized textbook in the backroom as if conducting a political scheme. When the government was caught operating a secret task force (TF), it insisted that it was engaging in "normal tasks" and released false commercials plainly making false arguments that "Our children are learning the Juche ideology" and "Yu Gwansun is not mentioned in the current textbooks." No matter how loud we shout that this is not true, the government continues to head backwards in history with its eyes closed and ears blocked.
The responsibility for this situation lies with President Park Geun-hye. We will clearly record and remember the actions of President Park, which defy democracy and the Constitution. Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung, who volunteered as the president's guard for his personal glory rather than point out the serious deviation of the president; Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, flattering the president and leading the efforts to deceive the citizens; Deputy Prime Minister for Education Hwang Woo-yea; and the Chairman of the National Institute of Korean History Kim Jung-bae should learn to fear history.
The public statement that Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn released yesterday clearly shows this. In his statement, Hwang questioned the existing textbooks claiming that they stated that both North and South Korea were responsible for triggering the Korean War. However, this was a complete hoax, because all the textbooks that passed the government's review state that North Korea invaded the South. Hwang's argument that the textbooks distorted history to make it look like the North Korean government was legitimate is also a serious distortion. He failed to mention that all eight textbooks criticize North Korea's dictatorship and hereditary system passed down through three generations, as well as describe how the citizens, who should be rightfully respected, were starving.
Hwang pointed out that the current textbooks undervalued the significance of the establishment of the government of the Republic of Korea in 1948, but this goes in line with the argument by the New Right, which claims that the date the government was established should be the date that the nation was founded. This is a dangerous view claiming that he will not recognize the legitimacy of the March 1 Movement and the provisional government. If the government will not recognize the legitimacy of the provisional government, do they mean to follow North Korea's perspective?
The press and the academia have already, on numerous accounts, confirmed that the examples of biased views on history cited by Hwang do not exist in the current textbooks. This is not a matter of judgment, but fact. Nevertheless, it is outrageous how the government is fabricating fact and using it as an excuse to promote the state designated textbooks. This would not be possible if the government was not intent on turning students, the pillars of the future, into uniform robots that do not know how to criticize anything. As Hwang pointed out, there are some textbooks that do not include the ROKS Cheonan incident. But the education ministry's guidelines for the textbook did not state that this incident be included. The government is being unreasonable. The issue was never mentioned when the government reviewed and passed the textbooks, and now the government is criticizing the textbooks for not dealing with this incident. Hwang called the textbook by Kyohak Publishing written by the New Right as a "proper" textbook. The textbook describes Japan's exploitation of South Korean rice as rice exports and paints activities by pro-Japanese businessmen as the independence movement. Seeing how Hwang called this the "proper" textbook, it is not difficult to guess at the direction and contents of the future state designated textbooks.
As for concerns that the state designated textbook might glorify pro-Japanese activities and dictatorship, Hwang said, "Our mature society would never tolerate that." But he failed to explain why the government was ignoring the strong opposing views of the "mature" civil society and pushing ahead with the state authorized textbooks. The government is engaging in self-contradictory behavior: ignoring the civil society when the citizens need the state and using the civil society when the government is in need. Hwang described the state designated textbook as restoring normal history education in his statement. This isn't something he should say when the government is driving the entire country, let alone history education, toward abnormal conflict and division.
The government secretly worked on introducing the state authorized textbook in the backroom as if conducting a political scheme. When the government was caught operating a secret task force (TF), it insisted that it was engaging in "normal tasks" and released false commercials plainly making false arguments that "Our children are learning the Juche ideology" and "Yu Gwansun is not mentioned in the current textbooks." No matter how loud we shout that this is not true, the government continues to head backwards in history with its eyes closed and ears blocked.
The responsibility for this situation lies with President Park Geun-hye. We will clearly record and remember the actions of President Park, which defy democracy and the Constitution. Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung, who volunteered as the president's guard for his personal glory rather than point out the serious deviation of the president; Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, flattering the president and leading the efforts to deceive the citizens; Deputy Prime Minister for Education Hwang Woo-yea; and the Chairman of the National Institute of Korean History Kim Jung-bae should learn to fear history.
No comments:
Post a Comment