President Lee Myung-bak was said to have strongly reprimanded Cheong Jean-gon, senior presidential secretary for education, science and culture, with regard to the issue of revising the history textbooks titled “A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea” at a meeting of senior presidential aides last week. It is common for a president to scold his presidential secretaries as a way to discipline subordinates and there were even scoldings under previous administrations. In addition to Cheong, other senior presidential secretaries were said to have been severely scolded by President Lee on the same day.

At stake is the way President Lee scolded Cheong. According to a news report by The JoongAng Ilbo, President Lee was quoted as saying to Cheong, “What’s the stance of a publishing company that refuses to make revisions? The publishing company was said to speak of ‘canceling the government’s authorization.’ In that case, should the government shoulder the entire burden? Did you conduct any research?” President Lee seems to have been pointing to a recent remark made by the publishing company in question, in which it expressed its wish for the government to cancel its approval of its history textbook. All of this has come amid increased pressure from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, which demanded the textbook revision, and criticism from the writers who refused to make the revisions.

President Lee’s reprimand indicates why the government is being dragged around by the publishing companies, while still failing to strongly push ahead with the revisions. But as the government requested that publishing companies make revisions in an unfair and illegitimate manner, there was no sense that anything was wrong. The admininstration’s action also contradicts the emphasis it has been placing on law and order since the start of its term.

This is not the only demonstration of President Lee’s unbalanced perception of the textbook situation. In response to a report by Cheong that a publishing company had expressed concerns that the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTWU, Jeon Gyo Jo) may launch a boycott campaign if the textbooks are revised, President Lee was quoted as saying, “What on earth does the government think it is doing? Is the publishing company only afraid of Jeon Gyo Jo, but not of the government and the other organizations?” His reference to the “other organizations” is to the conservative groups claiming that some versions of the textbooks are tilted leftward. President Lee seems to regard this stance as the same as the government. On the contrary, most historians and experts say there is no problem with the textbooks and the controversial parts reflect various interpretations of history.

Yesterday, five of the six companies that published the textbooks raised the white flag of surrender and accepted the government’s order to revise the textbooks. People know who is behind the Education Ministry’s push for the revisions. It will be difficult for President Lee to avoid his historical responsibility as the man who directed the distortion of our nation’s textbooks.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]