(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on June 9)

Professors' protests

Groups of university professors are issuing "manifestos on current affairs" one
after the other, asking the Lee Myung-bak administration to apologize for the
suicide of former president Roh Moo-hyun. Starting these collective actions was a
group of 124 Seoul National University professors who issued a statement last
Wednesday to criticize the way the government handled state affairs before and
after the former president's death.

By yesterday, teachers at about 20 universities in Seoul and provinces have
joined the movement. Names of those who signed the manifestos included the
leaders and members of the National Council of Professors for Democracy,
indicating that these protest moves are being coordinated by the staff of the
progressive body of university professors that was formed in 1987. In most cases,
the signatories represented about 10 percent of the total faculty members at each
university.
About 70 liberal intellectuals including noted lawyers and writers, who call
themselves the Coalition of Hope in Tomorrow, read a statement in front of
Seoul's Press Center Sunday afternoon, calling for the Lee government to end its
"audacious style of ruling the country."
The statements of the different groups invariably determined that the prosecution
investigation of the money scandal involving the family of former president Roh
and his financial supporter Park Yeon-cha was politically motivated and that
Present President Lee was showing an undemocratic tendency in his political and
economic actions. They deplored that President Lee, who owed an apology to the
nation, was instead maintaining an arrogant attitude.
First of all, it is difficult to accept the protesting professors' claim of
political retaliation with regard to the investigation into the Roh family. Their
use of the term, "political reprisals," itself is an affront to the democratic
system the nation has established through decades of hard struggle. If anyone in
power had such a sinister motivation, he could not use the prosecution as his
tool.
Prosecutor-General Lim Chae-jin resigned out of moral responsibility over the
suicide of the former president and in the face of strong public criticism for
the unscrupulous manner prosecutors showed in exposing suspicions about Roh and
his family. Under the extraordinary situation, the administration seemed to have
done its best to reflect the people's grief by solemnly observing a state funeral
for the former president.
President Lee is under siege -- from the staggering economy in the wake of the
global financial crisis, the rising security concerns over North Korea's nuclear
threats and the growing dissent within his own party. Some of the current
difficulties are of his own making but some require united efforts of the
government and the people to overcome them. Demanding his apology may be possible
from one of the former president's ardent political supporters but not from the
supposedly reasonable brains of university professors.
Modern Korea is politically fragile, with a relatively short history of
democracy, and the abrupt social and economic changes over the years have made
people easily agitated by unexpected developments. We have had a little too many
surprises in the past. It is the responsibility of the more intelligent groups
like university professors to make spontaneous and conscientious endeavors to
promote social harmony and better understanding in difficult times.
"Manifestos" issued almost competitively by professors' groups these past few
days are feared only to widen the gulf between different sectors and strata of
society. Their use of the names of their universities is also misleading because
they represent only a small portion of the faculty of their institutions.
(END)