South Korea is a country where evil specters of the past are constantly reappearing during the election season. When the Roh Moo-hyun administration was launched in 2002, for example, radical leftist politicians attempted to shut down Seoul National University as if the first-rate university was the axis of evil. Similarly, a high-ranking member of the Democratic United Party recently declared that if his party won this year’s presidential election, he would abolish Seoul National University as well. Many intellectuals are appalled and exasperated by the return of this phantom of the past.
In order to appeal to the masses, the populist politician from the Democratic United Party may have purposely cast a negative light on the SNU, a university notorious for its extremely competitive and selective nature. He might have believed that since approximately 90 percent of the population had no connection with the school, they would be excited to hear the news to eradicate the institution and heartily support his party during the election as a result.
Highlighting the university’s outstanding faults, the politician attributed the failure of education in Korea to SNU because he thought that the university was responsible for the so-called “entrance exam war.” He also blamed SNU for forming a privileged group of elites in our society against the people’s wish to become equal.
If his claim had any validity, however, the University of Tokyo and the University of Oxford should also be abolished, because according to his argument the two prestigious universities failed the Japanese and British education system. Instead of following the educational model set by the British and the Japanese, the politician suggested that the nation follow the example of the French. He however perhaps did not hear of reports that the French standardization of the educational system at the University of Paris turned out to be a complete failure and downgraded the quality of the school’s education to the lowest levels ever recorded.
Instead of accusing Seoul National University for the nation’s educational failures, the politician should have pointed out the chronic problems of the current college entrance exam system and promised to abolish the notorious exam. But he did not do so because he believed that making SNU a scapegoat was a much more attractive and easier strategy that would grant his party a landslide victory at the presidential election, if it worked.
Fortunately, people today are no longer ignorant and easily swayed by such implausible, childish election campaigns. The campaign once again proved that our politicians’ primary concern lay not with the future of Korea, but with their own election victory. Contrary to their claims, we need to establish more world-class universities, not abolish existing universities that are competing with other prestigious universities overseas.
Such an outrageous election campaign aims at exploiting two distinctively Korean psychological aspects: resentment and yearning for equal distribution. Sly politicians try to sweep the votes by evoking the grudges of those who have failed to enter SNU or those who think of themselves as underprivileged.
They also instigate the Korean people’s demand for equal distribution, which most likely stems from the common people’s grudges against the aristocratic yangban class during the Joseon Dynasty. It is precisely this psychological landscape that invites the specters of Marxism into Korean society, which is fundamentally ready to welcome them, even after the ideology proved itself to be a fatal mistake and a total failure all throughout the world.
Another specter from the past that constantly haunts the nation is the factional divisions and brawls prevalent in Korean society. It is well known that during the Joseon Dynasty, politicians were divided by different ideologies and antagonized each other, which frequently resulted in factional skirmishes and massacres.
The same thing is still happening today not only in political arenas but also in Korean society in general: left vs. right; PD (People’s Democracy) vs. NL (National Liberation); domestic Ph.D.s vs. overseas Ph.D.s; progressives vs. conservatives, privileged vs. underprivileged. The country is also torn not only by North and South, but also by East and West.
Currently, we are also being haunted by the Roh administration’s decision to divide the capital city of South Korea into two. Cabinet ministries are continuously moving to Sejong City and most government institutions will also be dispersed to various local cities next year. As a result, there will be many torn families among government officials because a majority of them will not bring their families from Seoul to the local city they are assigned to. Due to their solitude, many lonesome public servants will naturally turn to find solace in alcohol or sexual promiscuity. Additionally, the division of the capital city will also complicate communication between the dispersed institutions.
As the election season approaches, Koreans today are once again witnessing the return of specters from the past. Why should we constantly retreat into the labyrinth of the past? Why not look to the future in order to become more advantageous as a nation?
By Kim Seong-kon
Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and president of the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. ― Ed.