hankyoreh

Members of youth art groups hold a demonstration in Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul opposing the government’s plans for a state-issued history textbook

In a National Assembly address on Oct. 27, President Park Geun-hye said, “I will use correct history textbooks to unify the divide in public opinion.”

Over the past 20 days since the government‘s announcement of plans to take over the authorship of Korean history textbooks, South Korean society has coalesced around opposition to the plan, not around support of it, as President Park had hoped. Progressives and conservatives have both argued that bringing back state-issued history textbooks - a vestige of dictatorial regimes from the past - would not only cause problems for history education but would also bring about a crisis for liberal democracy itself.

As they sought to justify the plan by rolling out tired ideological attacks on the current system of textbook assessment and approval, the Blue House, ruling Saenuri Party (NFP), and the Education Ministry found themselves isolated with a tiny minority of figures on the far right.

When the Education Ministry officially issued its administrative notice on Oct. 12, public opinion was actually slightly in favor of state issuance, with a joint Money Today/Real Meter survey showing 47.6% for and 44.7% against. But as the Saenuri Party settled shortly afterwards on a platform of officially pushing for the measure, its attacks on the current authorized textbooks as “left-leaning” began to trigger a backlash. Party leader Kim Moo-sung’s remarks at an Oct. 17 starting ceremony for the Saenuri central committee mountaineering club, when he said that “ninety percent of South Korea’s scholars of Korean history have become leftists,” is generally seen as having divided conservatives into two camps: a reasoned majority opposing state issuance, and a far-right minority supporting it.

In an interview with the Hankyoreh, the moderate Seoul National University emeritus professor Jung Ok-ja, who headed the National Institute of Korean History (NIKH) during the Lee Myung-bak administration (2008-2013), said the state textbooks were “good for two years” and said supporters of state issuance represented the “far right” rather than mainstream “conservatives.” Eight out of ten history professors at the Academy of Korean Sciences, a state institution whose other members include leading New Right scholar Kwon Hee-young, released a statement distancing themselves from him.

“There has been a misunderstanding that all of us at the AKS support state issuance,” the statement said.

Further feeding the anger was the positive response to impolitic remarks made by extreme or non-history-related figures who were invited to official settings such as general meetings of National Assembly members. Among them were Center for Free Enterprise secretary-general Jeon Hee-gyeong, who urged lawmakers to “never back down” against objections by historians, and Yonsei University emeritus professor Song Bok, whose field is political science and sociology.

Over the past twenty days, more than 2,700 professors at some 170 universities have announced plans to boycott writing or oppose state textbook issuance. The campaign began on Oct. 13, the day after the administrative notice, with all 13 history professors at Yonsei University. Since then, there has been a veritable torrent of boycott statements from schools, regions, and academic societies around the country -- including history professors from such Saenuri strongholds as the Daegu/North Gyeongsang and Busan/Ulsan/South Gyeongsang areas. The response has been strong enough for some academic insiders to call it “the biggest rebellion since the April 19 Revolution,” referring to a student uprising in 1960. The fierce opposition led to an unprecedented episode on Oct. 30 when 28 history societies -- both progressive and conservative -- called for an end to the state issuance plan and announced a production boycott during the National History Conference, the single biggest event on the history field’s calendar.

27,000 teachers, including 2,000 members of the Association of Korean History Teachers, 1,000 members of the group Good Teacher, and 24,000 members of the Korean Teachers‘ and Education Workers’ Union, participated in opposition statements in which they revealed their names and affiliations, despite MOE policies for disciplining those who participate.

Young people, university students, and members of the general public have expressed their own mounting opposition through candlelight demonstrations. But apart from the ruling party, there is no real sign of a campaign to support the state issuance plan. A group of 102 professors expressed support on Oct. 16 under the name “Association of Professors Who Support State Textbook Issuance,” but all of them listed only their names without stating their affiliation or area of specialization. The move succeeded only in generating controversy, with some professors claiming their names had been “lifted.”

Actions by the MOE and NIKH, the institutions behind the state issuance plan, have also contributed to the growing opposition. These include walking back a pledge to announce the list of writers during the administrative notice, claiming that the names “cannot be given without consent,” and issuing press releases exaggerating or twisting content from current authorized textbooks. The most recent opinion poll numbers reported by Gallup Korea on Oct. 30 showed 49% of respondents opposing state issuance -- far more than the 36% in favor.

Perhaps the single most crucial moment in sinking public trust in the state issuance came on Oct. 25, when news broke of the existence of a secret MOE task force for the measure hidden away at the National Institute for International Education (NIIED) in Seoul’s Dongsung neighborhood. A document detailed its activities included one note about “BH support for daily review meetings” -- an abbreviation understood to mean “Blue House,” raising suspicions that the task force was a secret organization slapped together by the presidential office to support a state issuance measure under its own leadership. The MOE claimed the team was just an expanded version of the history education support team that it had put in charge of the state issuance plan. But a visit to its office by reporters and opposition party lawmakers prompted efforts to conceal its activities, including the locking of its doors and shredding of documents.

The MOE has also remained consistently tight-lipped since issuing administrative notice, refusing to disclose details about the fate of a 4.4 billion won (US$3.9 million) reserve fund for state textbook compilation that some believe was used to manage the task force.

Despite the fierce public opposition, President Park Geun-hye reiterated her commitment to the state issuance plan during an Oct. 27 policy address at the National Assembly, calling the measure a way of “correcting abnormal practices.” Eighty members of far-right groups were invited to attend the address.

By Jin Myeong-seon, Um Ji-won and Choi Woo-ri, staff reporters

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