Attention is focusing on the political climate following the large-scale “Citizens’ Rally to Carry on the Mantle of the June Struggle and Reclaim Democracy” that took place Wednesday in downtown Seoul.
In comments issued Thursday, the rally’s preparatory committee once again urged President Lee Myung-bak to take resolute measures to reform his methods of governance. “President Lee Myung-bak should give a clear answer as to whether he will accept the wishes of the citizens and fully reform his administration’s keynote or whether he will continue on with his misguided methods of governance,” the committee said. Some observers say the Committee’s concerns have intensified as there seems to be little possibility of President Lee accepting their demands and are now working to determine how to apply pressure.
The preparatory committee held a working-level meeting to evaluate the rally Thursday afternoon in the offices of Jinbo Corea on the sixth floor of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions headquarters in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo-gu. At the meeting, they agreed to a joint response to block the “MB bad laws” within the current “preparatory committee” framework through July 10, which marks the end of the traditional 49-day mourning period for former President Roh Moo-hyun.
The laws they oppose include legislation that the Grand National Party looks set to push through in the June extraordinary session of the National Assembly, including amendments to the Communications Privacy Act, various media-related laws, and the Assembly and Demonstration Law that has earned the derisive nickname of the “mask punishment law.” However, it is reported that no consensus has yet been reached on whether to expand the preparatory committee into what is being tentatively called the “Citizens’ Committee to Reclaim Democracy.”
“Citizen movement groups are finding some groups’ demands difficult to accept entirely, including calls for the President to step down,” said Oh Kwang-jin, policy team director for the Civil Society Organizations Network in Korea. Oh said that currently, each groups needs to first establish its position, after which they must “join forces and prepare for a long fight.”
The preparatory committee is also redoubling its efforts to determine how to respond, and how strongly, if President Lee does not accept its demands. Analysts are commenting that the biggest problem is the lack of any decisive means of pressuring the President.
Political figures in the Democratic Party and other opposition parties are currently unable to block the Grand National Party in the National Assembly, where it holds an overwhelming majority of seats. Observers suggest that it is problematic for them to depend upon haphazard “politics in the streets” methods as civic and social groups learned all too well during the last candlelight vigil demonstration that nothing can be changed with direct action.
As a result, civic groups are planning to hold a nationwide meeting in Daejeon on June 19 and 20 to create a system of solidarity to unite their capabilities. As many as 200 groups plan to participate in the meeting to formulate a long-term, systematic response to what they see as the Lee Myung-bak administration’s arbitrary methods of governance. Catholic groups are also issuing a variety of responses, including calling for an emergency convening of priests from all over the country on June 15.
“Since the situation is not one in which a settlement will be achieved in the short term, we must work together with all people suffering from the presidential administration’s arbitrary methods of governance,” said Cheon Jun-ho, a spokesperson for the preparatory committee and president of Korea Youth Corps. “Forces for democracy will unite and combine their forces for the local government elections next year in the short term, and the 2012 presidential election in the long term,” Cheon added.
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