Kim Dae Joong on the Abstention

Again, I must note that this isn’t the ex-Prez, but a popular South Korea columnist with a similar-sounding name.

The core of the Roh Moo-hyun administration consists of people who protested loudly at human rights abuses in the decades when South Korea was a desert in that regard. Many young men and women in those days were beaten during demonstrations, arrested while escaping, some tortured, and a few of them died.

That earned the survivors the decoration they carry on their chests today. The prime minister and other leaders of the administration brag about it now, as who should say, “Where were you when we languished in prison?” and, “Who are you to criticize, when you never said a word then?” What underpins their hold on power today is a national sense that they should be rewarded for the courage with which they protested against the suppression of human rights and fought against the dogmatism and undemocratic practices of the oppressor.

If they gained power, many citizens believed, they would display an unusual sense of mission to improve and safeguard human rights. The government is betraying that trust. It is blind, dumb and speechless to the human rights situation in North Korea.

I think you see where he’s going there.

The greatest moral crime of the abstention is that it crushes any nascent resistance forces in the North. The desperate efforts of the North Koreans to recover the minimum rights to subsistence and living free from the threat of incarceration in concentration camps and public execution have been dealt a terrible blow by Seoul’s abstention. It calls the very legitimacy of the Roh government into question.

True, except for the last sentence. Governments I don’t happen to have much use for–and Roh’s is surely one–don’t lack for legitimacy simply because they make bad decisions. The government was duly and fairly elected; ergo, it’s legitimate. The fact that it’s likely thoroughly infiltrated with Friends of North Korea (FRONKs) and ordinary idiots–and yes, I mean you, Chung Dong-Young–is an issue for the voters.