Extensions of Remarks
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9760 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS April 24, 1984 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS KIM DAE JUNG office will not constitute a peaceful change which brute force abolished in spite of pop of power by democratic process. ular support. We should return not only to A genuine, peaceful change of administra the pre-Yushin constitution but also to the HON. BARNEY FRANK tions is possible only when the people freely laws governing the press and elections. OF MASSACHUSETTS and without fear exercise their rights as I want to make known to our people and IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES masters of the nation. Under the present the world my view that this is a most urgent circumstances, there is no guarantee of the agenda item in our struggle for democracy. Tuesday, April 24, 1984 people's sovereignty founded in such basic It is also my fervent hope that all opposi • Mr. FRANK. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kim rights as free elections and freedom of the tion forces will come around to this view Dae Jung, the exiled Korean dissident press, and thus political change means noth and make concerted efforts to bring it into leader, recently issued a statement ing. It is a mere relay of power between dic reality. tators in which another Chun Doo Hwan C. Improvement of human rights to be which outlines his views and proposals can be imposed upon the South Korean regarding Korea. Mr. Kim was in 1971 people. preceded by structural improvements the opposition candidate for Presi The pivotal issue, therefore, is not one of Genuine improvements in human rights dent. Since that time he has been in "serving one term until 1988" but whether are not possible without first reforming the prison 5112 years, under house arrest the people have the freedom to choose and system itself. Recently, the Chun Doo Hwan change their government. This issue is of regime has released students from prison 3112 years and in exile 2 years. He is a and allowed them to return to school. It has courageous advocate for basic free prime importance. B. The danger of a constitutional amend also taken steps to allow professors fired for doms in his country, and is an inspira ment for direct election of the Korean political reasons to return to university life tion to the many Koreans who are President and lifted bans on political activity for some working for liberalization and a return politicians. These measures should be wel I must warn that there is danger in a con comed regardless of what the underlying to democracy in Korea. His eloquent stitutional amendment for the direct elec statement should enlighten us all, and motives might be. tion of the president. Recently, there has It is clear that these actions do not repre I ask that it be made a part of the been much ballyhoo about direct presiden sent a genuine improvement of human RECORD. tial elections in the government-manipulat rights. This is because, although their THE DESTINY OF THE KOREAN NATION AT THE ed media and among "opposition parties". rights have been restored to some extent, CROSSROADS: MY VIEWS AND PROPOSALS They are misleading the people into think ing that direct elections are the way to re these students and professors should not <By Kim Dae Jung) store democracy. The Chun regime feigns have been imprisoned or fired in the first [From the April, 1984 issue of Conscience in an opposition to all these talks while either place. It has also been proven in the case of Action, published by the Korean Institute acquiescing to or encouraging them behind the Park Chung Hee regime that without for Human Rights] the scenes. I have to warn that any move ~titutional and legal reforms, liberaliza tion undertaken out of necessity or whims A fierce popular struggle for democracy is toward faith in direct presidential elections is based on faulty reasoning and also runs of a dictator can always revert to repression looming large in South Korea. Few doubt for the same reasons. Human rights are fun that the struggle for democracy will erupt the risk of being ensnared in one of the dic tatorial regime's ploys. damental, not to be given out at the pleas this spring-led first by students and then ure of a dictator. This is why human rights joined by the general public. It will be the First, direct election of the president does not in and of itself constitute democracy. A can not be advanced without freedom of po most intense and widespread struggle in the litical activity, a free press, free elections, four years of the Chun Doo Hwan regime, great number of Caribbean republics are ex emplary dictatorships in spite of direct pres freedom for labor to organize, freedom to and physical force will not be able to put it protest, and freedom of assembly. down. idential elections. On the other hand the United States represents a well-establlshed If the ostensibly liberalizing measures are The Korean people and the Chun Doo intended to improve the image of the Chun Hwan regime are at a fateful crossroads, democratic society, although it elects its president indirectly. regime at home and abroad or to earn an and so are the United States and Japan, excuse for subsequent repression, they are countries which have been supportive of the Second, to expect that the Chun regime and the current National Assembly which an affront to human rights. In a survey con Chun regime. I want to share my thoughts ducted during the current dictatorial on these critical issues. What is the truth serves the Chun regime at its pleasure could regime, 80 percent of the Korean people de about the predicament in which the Korean enact a democratic constitution is like climbing to the top of a tree to catch a fish. manded that human rights and democracy nation is deeply mired? How can we over should be restored even if this means slow come this crisis without violence and trage Third, a constitutional amendment at this time for the direct election of the president ing down economic growth. This is the dy? reason for my demand of a wholesale revi Fundamentally, the solution lies in the runs a great risk of providing the Chun dic sion of the laws pertaining to protest, as restoration of democracy wherein the tatorship with a facade of legitimacy and opens the way for perpetuation of its rule sembly, and agricultural cooperative unions. freely-formed and freely-expressed opinions I also demand the abolition of the basic laws of the Korean people can not only be hon after 1988. It goes without saying that the governing the press, and the reinstatement ored but can also serve as the standard for ~urrent of the election laws of the Third Republic. national judgment and decision making. dictatorial constitution born out of the May Within the framework of this fundamental 17, 1981 coup should be revised. The revi D. Implementation of local autonomy solution, I want to offer my beliefs on the sion, however, should be wholesale in scope indispensable national agenda. and not of a patch-up variety involving only The implementation of the system of local changes such as the method of presidential automony is indispensable. Local autonomy I. THE ROAD TO DEMOCRATIC REFORM election. The first step should be a tempo is essential to parliamentary democracy. A. Relinquishing power at the end of one rary return to the constitution of the pre The system of local autonomy gives the term in 1988-not the answer Yushin Third Republic. people a training ground where they may Chun Doo Hwan has publicly pledged that Even though the constitution of the Third gain political experience. It is an ubiquitous he will step down after completing one term Republic was adopted during the Park phenomenon found everywhere irrespective in office in March, 1988. He claims that this Chung Hee era, all of us had a hand in its of ideology. By shunning it, the Chun will break the ground for the first peaceful drafting, and adhered to and guarded it for regime is only undermining its loud procla transfer of power in the history of the Re ten years. Further, its substance is more mation that it is moving toward political de public. Though I doubt that Chun Doo than adequate as the legal foundation for velopment. Hwan will indeed step down in 1988, this is realizing a democratic Korea. It is also im Even during the Korean Conflict some not the real issue. Rather, it should be made portant to set a precedent of restoring a thirty years ago, there was a system of local unequivocably clear that his departure from constitution by popular will, a constitution autonomy. The centralization of power e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor. April 24, 1984 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 9761 since then, however, has produced extreme security is sheer dictatorial demagoguery conference is likely. The forthcoming trip of ly abnormal growth in Seoul to an extent and that democratic politics is a sine qua President Reagan to China may very well unmatched anywhere else in the world-Le., non for national security. serve as a catalyst for dramatic progress on 10 million people or 25 percent of the South F. The need for a free market system this issue. Korean population and nearly 70 percent of We need the free market system. We have I welcome any type of a conference as the currency in circulation are now concen expanded our economy substantially during long as it contributes to the reduction of trated in the capital city.