Citizens travel to Owl Rock in remembrance of late President Roh Moo-hyun

Posted on : 2010-05-20 12:35 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Citizens most often used the words “democracy,” “conviction,” “informality” and “integrity” in remembering Roh
 May 19.  
 
May 19.  

At around 1 p.m. Tuesday, the spring rain was unusually heavy in the village of Bongha in Jinyeong Town, Gimhae City, South Gyeongsang Province. From Owl Rock, the fields of Bongha appeared covered in inky clouds. It was from here, on Owl Rock, that late President Roh Moo-hyun took his own life on May 23 of last year.

Heartbreak

Soju bottles, crumpled cigarette packs, paper cups and lighters lay strewn in the corners of the rock. Roh’s “one cigarette” story may be to blame for the cigarette butts littered about. Bonghwa Mountain is a no smoking area, but the people who have gone up on the rock have often smoked.

Ahn Seon-gyu, 50, from Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, who said that the neighboring village of “Jangbaengi” was his hometown, and Park Cheol-hong, a 50-year-old from Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, said that Bonghwa Mountain served as their playground when they were young.

I asked who “Roh Moo-hyun” was to them.

“Politics?” they answered. “I do not really know about that. He was someone unselfish, wasn’t he?”

Park said that Roh could have become the most successful president after leaving office, but he ended up becoming the most unfortunate. He even used the word “huisaengyang,” or “scapegoat.” The front of the grave mound was blocked by a wooden fence, a sign posted there reading “Danger! Do not enter.”

Roh non-supporters and supporters

“He had a tough time studying without any money, and he ended up leaving the world after enduring a great deal of suffering without being able to do the things he wanted,” said Lee Ye-yeol, 75, from Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province. Lee spoke sparingly also mentioned having visited the site a few times before.

“What is the use in a lot of talk about ‘green’ and ‘future-oriented’ from President Lee Myeong-bak?” said Lee Jeong-gi and Yu Gyeong-taek, two 25-year-old Kyungpook National University students who came in from Daegu. They also said that things are presently done very differently from the way they were done during the Roh administration.

“There is a sense of distance,” said Lee when asked about the difference. “When Roh Moo-hyun did things, it felt intimate, but that did not mean I was a Roh supporter, though,” He also said that Roh was someone who showed it was possible to ascend to the position one desired through legitimate hard work.

Kim Hyeong-su, 33, took a holiday with two co-workers in Wonju, Gangwon Province, to visit Bongha.

“I am not interested in politics,” Kim said. “But if you ask what kind of value he left behind, I would answer ‘conviction.’” Kim also expressed dismay that Roh did not stay to watch his descendants.

Park Ok-sun, 80, came with all four of her daughters.

“That guy?” said Park. “He took a beating when he was alive and got a name for himself when he died. I lit so many candles for him...” Park repeatedly stressed the need to live a life of kindness. When asked why, she said, “The world today is a harsh, scary place.”

Not a word was spoken

Around twilight on Tuesday, a man surnamed “Noh” from Hamyeong, South Jeolla Province, arrived at the rock with his wife.

“I have to make a living, and it has taken me this long to get here,” Noh said. Without hesitation, Noh said that the late president was victimized by the powerful. “I have got mixed feelings,” he said. Rather than continuing, he smoked a cigarette.

Two visitors to the rock from Masan and Changwon in South Gyeongsang Province, a 49-year-old named Heo and a 46-year-old named Gang, launched a torrent of words at the journalist.

“The Roh Moo-hyun spirit is person-centered thinking,” they said, “Five years was too short.” They went on to criticize figures in the Roh administration.

“Those people should have been smarter, but they were not,” they said, “Sometimes political actions are necessary...” Heo, who thought of Roh as simply an “OK President” during his term in office, claimed to have come to understand his character better after his death. Heo was unable to finish, and tears finally welled up in his eyes.

A further breakdown in progressivism

Kim Jeong-guk, 53, who went back to work as a business owner ten years ago after doing labor union work for 15 years, spoke softly.

“Even if they win the race for Seoul mayor and Gyeonggi governor, any more of this division and spiritlessness and they are bound to lose in the presidential election two years from now,” he said. “It has to collapse further.”

Kim’s criticism was unsparing.

“Roh Moo-hyun was wonderful, but the people he worked with were not good people,” Kim said. “It was not conservatism that killed him, it was divided progressivism.” Kim said that as a political legacy, there was a need to work harder at reaching consensus rather than exploiting the late president’s death.

In sharing memories of Roh, the citizens I met at Owl Rock over a period of two days often mentioned “democracy,” “conviction,” “informality” and “integrity.” They also tried to refrain as much as possible from words of criticism. A number of people stood on the rock for a while without saying anything. One citizen placed two chrysanthemums in the wooden fence before departing. On Wednesday, the flowers, their heads hanging low from the daylong rainfall, dried completely in the blazing sun.

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

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