단상斷想

First of all, I express my regret that Kang Seon-woo's abuse of power provided the beginning of the problem. When you go to the National Assembly, even the stone markers of the trees planted in the garden have a feeling of the afterlife that has lost humility, so it would be more strange if those who live their lives in a system different from the wages that ordinary people receive in it did not have a sense of privilege.

Whether it was his own fault or the excessive exposure of his aides, there seems to have been a problem. Of course, I don't know exactly whether there was prior coordination between the party's lawmakers and the presidential office that they could not burden the newly launched Lee Jae-myung government. However, I wonder if the remarks made by the Korean media and the women's community regarding this Minister of Gender Equality and Family nominee are so harsh on the Democratic Party candidate. Considering Yoon Seok-yeol's appointment of people from the People Power Party, it is absurd, so I recommend creating a men's community for the women's community that likes fairness. Since Korea's gender conflict is a fight between veteran male and female politicians, it is necessary to arm themselves by age group in order to see the end of it. It is not enough to have left-wing parents and far-right sons, and feminist daughters, so it is right to expand and disperse them into left-wing fathers, Taegeukgi mothers, Ilbe sons, and homosexual daughters to fight. As Korea has become the most obscene country in the East from the country of Eastern etiquette, the era has come when we have to fight fiercely and kill and beat each other between fathers and sons, and mothers and daughters.

The fact that aides who didn't budge at the selection of insurrectionary parties and criminals are now speaking out against candidate Kang Sun-woo's abuse of power clearly reveals how deeply rooted the ills of this society are. The belated response of the victims, who did not immediately address the abuse of power by committee member Kang Sun-woo and the negligence of professor Kang Sun-woo, is a group action that could be misunderstood as a low-level attempt to attack her only after she became a minister candidate. This approach itself is nothing more than someone else engaging in another form of abuse of power by using the voices of the victims. It is right for the real victim to rightfully reveal their face and raise the issue, but it seems like a distortion of the essence for the media to ignite the controversy and produce secondary and tertiary power figures.

This kind of malpractice proves a complete lack of awareness of the seriousness of dividing parents and children with political ideologies. The controversy surrounding the abuse allegations against Minister of Gender Equality and Family nominee Kang Sun-woo is a disaster that has nakedly exposed this fundamental problem of Korean society, going beyond the personnel hearing controversy, which is a perfunctory act with rubber band-like standards. As a result of a complex interplay of sensationalism and biased reporting by the media, outdated political strife logic of the political world, and the organized pressure of interest groups, it is seen as a fatal example of how severely the healthy checks and balances for the function of the state have been damaged.

Korean media is inherently a group that has completely abandoned the basic principle of fair and balanced reporting from its origin, but if it has come to a state of dividing men and women, I think it is time to look back. If the disease is deep, you have to see a doctor, but we have become a nation that has nurtured the disease and even gone mad. Starting with SBS's initial report that Rep. Kang Sun-woo allegedly committed so-called 'abuse of power' against several aides on several occasions, the media highlighted unverified, one-sided claims as if they were confirmed facts. What is even more serious is that they intentionally reduced or did not even deal with explanations or opposing testimonies, such as the Kang candidate's refutation that 'the allegations of abuse of power are completely untrue,' and committed biased news selection (Gate Keeping). SBS is a company that received great favors from the insurrectionist Yoon, and it is a company that would be difficult to survive if there had been an objective tax investigation. The fact that such a company owns a broadcasting station is like a murderer owning a comprehensive weapons manufacturing company. The people are already maintaining their livelihood by assembling parts to make weapons at this evil weapons manufacturing company, and when they go home, they foam at the mouth and fight even with their families over who to kill with that weapon. It's amazing that the country is still running when life is like this.

SBS's media behavior is not a simple mistake or carelessness, but a systematic and intentional manipulation of public opinion. Media companies are blinded by the number of clicks, and they are faithfully implementing a management policy of filling their private interests under the guise of fact-checking while deceiving the public with sensational titles and provocative content. In particular, the fact that they repeatedly report only the unilateral claims of anonymous informants, while thoroughly ignoring fact-checking or cross-verification, clearly shows how corrupt the Korean media has become. The media packaged events from different times and contexts into one through 'patchwork-style' reports, as if they were systematic and continuous problems. This is not to satisfy the public's right to know, but rather a criminal act of distorting the truth and manipulating public opinion. When the media abandons fairness and objectivity in this way, the damage goes directly to the public. A bill is needed to mandate punitive damages if media reports are false. In a country for vicious business owners, light punishments or disciplinary actions only fill the public, who have become immune, with anger, and they need to realize that this leads to the public's loss and information poverty due to the failure to satisfy the individual's right to know. Well, since they can put forward third-rate figures as they want through the expression of this anger, those who know will know how much the political system despises the public and who the media exists for.

The Democratic Party's aides council former chairmen stated, "For the success of the Lee Jae-myung government, Candidate Kang should immediately offer a sincere apology to the public and voluntarily resign from the ministerial candidate position to take minimal responsibility." They argued that Candidate Kang's abuse of power, which disregarded the dignity of the aides, lacked the basic attitude of a Minister of Gender Equality and Family, as well as a member of the National Assembly, which is largely a prepared message to trigger resignation. The content is plausible, but as mentioned earlier, it is unknown whether the aides who were subjected to the abuse at the time did not raise the issue but expressed their animosity through a third party, taking advantage of the situation, or whether it is a shocking example showing the prepared and blatant politicization of the aides' group. The duty of the aides is to support the legislative activities of the members of the National Assembly and to assist in policy development. However, their collective organization to exercise a veto on the appointment of a specific politician is a clear overreach and abuse of power. In particular, the act of trying to enforce their political position under the pretext of "for the success of the Lee Jae-myung government" is an abuse of the president's hierarchy as a means of political pressure, given their position as aides. It is almost as if self-seeking politicians are engaging in learned thievery, which they acquired from their aides in the National Assembly. Furthermore, it is hard not to laugh at the fact that Go Geon-min, the chairman of the Minbo Association, is an aide to Representative Heo Young, who is rumored to be a Moon Jae-in watermelon.

The bigger problem is that they are acting as if they represent the entire staff and are exerting collective pressure. This is a totalitarian idea that ignores the diverse opinions of individual aides and forces the interests of a specific group. This behavior of the Democratic Party Aides Council seriously undermines democracy within the party and is a serious deviation that undermines the very meaning of the aide system itself. It is legitimate for aides to demand protection of labor rights and improved treatment. However, when it turns into collective burial and political pressure on a specific politician, it is no longer protection of labor rights, but political retaliation and a power struggle. Their actions ultimately undermine social trust in the entire staff and have the adverse effect of making even legitimate demands for protection of rights and interests viewed through tinted glasses.

Thanks to these Democratic Party lawmakers, the People Power Party took advantage of this situation as a golden opportunity for political offense. In fact, the People Power Party is like a store that only sells rotten goods and is about to close, but they were excited because the Democratic Party brought in fresh items for the first time in a while. At the hearing, the substantive verification of Candidate Kang's policy capabilities or vision was pushed to the back burner, and they were only focused on persistently digging into allegations of abuse of power and inflicting political damage. The criticism that People Power Party lawmakers focused only on 'demonizing Kang Sun-woo' and did not ask any policy-related questions at all clearly shows the irresponsible and destructive behavior of the opposition party. The hearing is a sacred institutional device to verify the qualifications and policy capabilities of candidates. However, it was reduced to a place of political lynching, completely destroying the people's right to know and the democratic check function. In the end, even if the ruling party becomes the opposition party and the opposition party becomes the ruling party, the inherent naivety of the Democratic Party is a chronic disease. Perhaps it is because the toxic historical genes of pro-Japanese politics are weak. When the opposition party abandons such constructive checks and criticisms and is only preoccupied with political obstruction, the damage directly affects state administration and policy development.

Meanwhile, the ruling Democratic Party also showed only a passive attitude of trying to avoid political burden, with insufficient active defense of the candidate or efforts to clarify the facts. Even within the party, they showed a 모습 of succumbing to the pressure from the aides' council, completely losing their sense of responsibility and conviction as a political party. When the ruling party is so powerless and disoriented, the driving force and 추진력 of state administration inevitably weaken significantly. In the end, both the ruling and opposition parties abandon their inherent duty of policy competition and constructive checks and balances for the people, and are only preoccupied with political interests and partisan calculations. The Democratic Party's attitude toward such factionalism and populism is similar to that of the early days of Moon Jae-in's administration. It's a dangerous story. If even the party leader is handed over to the impulsive and emotional Chung Cheong-rae, lawmakers waiting for factional politics may transform into another face. If far-right and pseudo-groups seize the public's distrust and cynicism towards politics in a political system mixed with lethargy, laziness, and naivety, this country will become more divided and will degenerate as foolishly as North Korea's Kim Jong-un family dictatorship.

The majority of people probably mistake this situation as a path towards restoring democracy by ousting a "gapjil" (abuse of power) member of parliament. However, some may feel that their fundamental distrust of politics and the media has deepened. Usually, when an illness becomes severe, there are no symptoms. Readers should consider that the resignation of candidate Kang Sun-woo at this point, when people are not aware of the seriousness of the situation, creates room for repeating the mistakes of the Moon Jae-in government. Furthermore, in a situation where Trump is weighing tariff issues and low approval ratings, Korean media, which cares more about the US than the US media itself, is churning out articles that are embarrassingly bad. In a situation where it is difficult to distinguish between what is true and what is false, the people must recognize that they have the ability to sublimate their accumulated fatigue and confusion into cool-headed judgment and put it into practice. The days of being swayed by the Chojoongdong (major conservative newspapers) and blindly trusting the words of state-run broadcasters that are like shipwrecks and media groups whose owners pursue personal gain are over. We must realize that important policy issues are being buried by their political strife and manipulation of public opinion, and we must not become the last pawn to shake the Lee Jae-myung government, which truly wants to discuss politics and policies for the people.