hankyoreh

Demonstrators celebrate the second anniversary of the candlelit rallies that helped drive then President Park Geun-hye from office on Oct. 27 in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza. Demonstrators can be seen holding signs calling for the “complete eradication of deep-rooted vices.” (Shin So-young

Oct. 29 is the second anniversary of the day when the streets of downtown Seoul were illuminated by candles held by protesters calling for then South Korean president Park Geun-hye to resign. The candlelit demonstrations that began with a tiny glow alongside the Cheonggye Stream unified the hearts of countless citizens enraged at the influence-peddling of Park and her associate Choi Soon-sil, ultimately resulting in Park’s impeachment and the launch of a new democratic government.

Since this past weekend, a variety of events have been held in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun neighborhood to commemorate the second anniversary of the candlelit rallies. As Park Seok-un, permanent co-president of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement, remarked during a commemorative event on Oct. 27, the spirit of the candlelit protests is likely behind the shift from the threat of war to peace on the Korean Peninsula and the transformation of Koreans’ everyday life through the #MeToo and the #WithYou movements. While some may be dissatisfied, it is fair to say that South Korean society has taken several steps forward and achieved meaningful progress over the past two years.

staff photographer)

Lately, however, we have been disturbed by the increasingly overt efforts to erase the value of the candlelit rallies by disparaging their significance and by bashing the administration of President Moon Jae-in, whose emergence is the result of the candlelit demonstrations. The lesson of history is that every social movement elicits a reaction. Be that as it may, the ongoing push to restore power to the culprits behind Park’s influence-peddling scandal and gain political dividends, even before their prosecution in the courts is complete, is reprehensible.

Just one example is the statement released on Oct. 26 by 320 individuals who fancy themselves conservative intellectuals calling for President Moon Jae-in to step down. Given that “Taegukgi rallies” are held every weekend by flag-waving individuals calling for the release of Park Geun-hye, there’s nothing new about far-right figures denying the constitutional order and demanding the end of the current government. The problem is the growing support for the dangerous viewpoint that seeks to surreptitiously defend the figures behind the influence-peddling scandal and treat them as the basis for a conservative restoration.

A demonstrator holds up a candle to celebrate the second year anniversary of the candlelit rallies that helped drive then President Park Geun-hye from office. (Shin So-young

Another revealing example are the remarks made by North Gyeongsang Province Governor Lee Cheol-woo during a service commemorating the 39th anniversary of the death of Park Chung-hee, former president and father of Park Geun-hye, on Oct. 26. As tears streamed down his eyes, Lee praised the “Park Chung-hee spirit” and urged Chun Won-chaek, a member of the Liberty Korea Party’s special committee for strengthening the party’s organization, not to exclude the Taegukgi protestors from conservative unity.

Such figures adroitly play up economic difficulties and conservatives’ fears about progress in inter-Korean relations as part of their apparently single-minded goal of fostering division between Moon Jae-in’s supporters and opponents. They go over the top in their criticism of the attempt to rectify problematic practices that affect the entirety of Korean society and cynically remark that the candlelit protests were no revolution and that all this talk about righting wrongs is going nowhere.

The question of whether the candlelit protests were a revolution is something for history to judge. The important thing is that the Moon administration has been acting on and getting results on the demands for change across society that were voiced during those protests. There is nothing wrong with a variety of viewpoints and opinions about the scope and content of social change.

That said, any attempt to restore the political clique of Park Geun-hye, who was impeached two years ago with the support of an absolute majority of Koreans and to resort to that clique’s wellspring of the “Park Chung-hee ideology” and the “myth of development dictatorship” should not be tolerated.

It’s time to reflect once more upon the values of democracy and overcoming inequality, which were widely shared not only by progressives but also by conservatives when the candlelit rallies appeared and spread like wildfire two years ago.

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