단상斷想

The sexual harassment incident in the Rebuilding Korea Party occurred around December 13, 2024, when the party leader's two-year prison sentence was confirmed and he lost his parliamentary seat, and it wasn't a one-time event. However, the frustration of the martial law followed by impeachment, early presidential elections, the Democratic Party leadership election, and issues such as the pardon of politicians overlapped, so they covered it up and buried the incident. Those who hoped that Cho Kuk would be the successor to Yoon Seok-yeol, following Moon Jae-in, may have thought that covering up this kind of incident was actually a piece of cake. The victim also seems to have demanded a party-level resolution, taking steps regarding her damages, to minimize the damage to the party and the party leader.

However, there is one important fact in South Korea that even the people overlook. The perspective on sexual misconduct issues includes not only men and women, but also a third gender, but there is also something called powerism. Powerism, which changes depending on the presence or absence of power, not a classification based on biological function, has no distinction between men and women, only power is tolerated, and no explanation is needed in the face of power. This is a dogma unique to Korean society and is in itself a new era in human history. The evidence is primarily the image of our ancestors' blood flowing within us, who survived as victims of numerous rape cases committed during the colonial rule of the last century, evolving into political humans like mental confusion, with the seed of the perpetrator and the womb that conceived the seed intertwined with anger and self-harm.

Secondly, it is the phenomenon that Park Eun-jung, a member of the same party who is a prosecutor, and radical feminist clubs, who are ready to cut off all the fingers of Korean men, are keeping their mouths shut about the sexual harassment case that occurred within the Korean political parties. If the public is wise, let them drag this issue out. Then, they won't be able to remain silent, so the feminists will have something to say. They act as if they are not women like the victims, or they are women who are enemies of women, laughing at the victims' cries. At this moment, the identity of Korean women is not femininity, but the biological classification of women becomes a weapon. It is extreme, primal, and primitive, but the representation of Korean women, who have evolved very intelligently, has already lost the self-control to overcome contradictions in the basics of human institutions such as marriage and education, and is heading in an extreme direction that cannot be explained by any analysis.

This power dynamic makes it difficult to distinguish whether the male perpetrators or feminist figures are engaging in politics to improve our society or to seize power when dealing with sexual harassment against women.

The Jo Kuk Innovation Party's concealment of sexual harassment raises many issues. Park Eun-jeong's silence, in that radical feminism represents the pinnacle of modern Korean society's political flaws, requires a serious review of the Jo Kuk Innovation Party's reason for existence. This incident not only reveals that the ethical standards of a newly formed party advocating innovation and reform have not escaped pre-modern thinking, but also shows how empty the symbolic figure of Jo Kuk was, merely an image created by the media. When the party spokesperson gave a statement about leaving the party, party leader Jo Kuk, in a striped suit, carefully carried a neatly folded wrapping cloth box from Jogyesa Temple, unable to utter a word of his inner thoughts or political remarks. In fact, a person who cannot speak without a script should not be involved in politics. It is proof that they have no knowledge or philosophy. This simple truth has been suppressed by dictatorship and torture, and the people have not even had the opportunity to properly verify politicians, as it has been used as a shield for the private power of hypocrites. This incident starkly reveals the deep contradictions of Korean civil society and should be used as an opportunity to eradicate the roots of image politics.

If you go to a local hair salon, you'll find Cho Kuk's book inserted like a blue-toned interior prop, but it's a book that even the owner doesn't know. To think that it's ended up in a local hair salon after going around and around, it's a book that I stood in line to get signed at a book concert, and he was a scholar before he was a politician. The media power of the Republic of Korea, which creates an illusionary image and turns voters into scarecrows, is also a problem, but we must also know how to hang our heads in shame at the complex issue that has developed into exposing the political duplicity of the civil society camp due to the selective silence of feminist groups that have always prioritized gender equality and victim protection.

The most serious problem in this case was the way the party responded after the incident came to light. The victim was completely ignored, and even the assistants who helped the victim were expelled or disciplined. The leadership only focused on formal explanations that ‘all procedures were followed,’ and no genuine sense of responsibility or effort to protect the victim could be found. Looking into the details of the case, its seriousness becomes even more apparent. Despite the victim's complaints of sexual harassment and assault for more than 10 months, the party's Ethics Committee and Women's Committee were virtually idle. Far from thoroughly investigating the truth through external experts or independent investigation bodies, they dismissed the raising of issues as 'acts that shake the party' and focused on blocking the victim's voice. Colleagues who helped the victim were instead disciplined and expelled from the party, and testimonies continued that the leadership urged the withdrawal of the lawsuit even after an assault occurred. This series of processes can be seen as intentional concealment and secondary victimization that prioritized organizational protection over victim protection, rather than incompetence or mistakes. Furthermore, the victim and her assistants were eventually forced to leave the party, and internal whistleblowers were completely isolated. This behavior of a political party excluding victims in order to protect its own vested interests is a betrayal of the essential responsibility of politics to protect the socially vulnerable.

The more shocking fact is that some of the perpetrators were pro-Moon Jae-in figures. Although the Rebuilding Korea Party is a new party that outwardly advocates innovation, in reality, it was moving within a structure where pro-Moon Jae-in figures were at the center and maintained vested interests. Therefore, the attitude shown by the party leadership when the sexual harassment case broke out was not to protect the victim, but to maintain factional interests. The victim's voice was regarded as a threat to the pro-Moon Jae-in vested interests, and therefore treated as an object to be systematically suppressed. This response is not unfamiliar, but to think that they could politically deceive the public who have experienced the politics of Yoon Seok-yeol and Kim Gun-hee again, it seems that they cannot easily escape from 'old-fashioned politics'. The political calculation to cover up the incident, exclude the victim, and maintain power is no different from the old practices that large parties have shown in the past. Is there a need for a power-centered party that is the same as the past? Cho Kuk's actions have few options. In reality, protecting factions and vested interests takes precedence. Cho Kuk's political morality is being shaken to its roots 'again'. It is only a small party of 12 lawmakers, but the response to this incident was concealment and secondary harm. If it were a large party, how much deeper would it have been buried? It's just a futile feeling.

In the old legendary Hometown Legends era, when a noblewoman was about to be raped while crossing a rough hill, her servant girl would offer herself instead. A noblewoman would also go to a temple with her servant girl for conception. The method by which the noblewoman conceives instead of the servant girl is thanks to a monk with deep training. The noblewoman returned safely with her servant girl, and the alibi is established. The era of servant girls existing for that purpose flowed within us. Originally, humans are two-faced, and their words and actions are most effectively aligned when coveting what belongs to others. The era of profound and lavish men and women is gone, and finally, the era has come when servant girls tasted as servant girls and noble ladies tasted as noble ladies. We couldn't stand against the guns and swords of foreign powers. Well, they will say that the country fell because the nobles were rotten.

I don't know how they can pass on the teachings of the Japanese colonial era without missing a single thing, but the traces left by Yoon Seok-yeol and Kim Gun-hee are too great to forgive the act of siding with the perpetrator and framing the victim as the perpetrator. But the desire of those who want to keep running like them is covering up the perpetrator's name and face in this case and arguing back and forth. The most important thing in the practice of concealing and turning the victim into the perpetrator when sexual harassment, rape, and sexual harassment cases occur in broadcasting stations, companies, schools, and universities is power. Power settles everything. Thanks to Yoon Seok-yeol, who voluntarily relinquished his throne, Lee Jae-myung was elected president, but there is still a widespread sense of psychological rebellion at home and abroad that cannot accept Lee Jae-myung. There are so many smart people, so the country is divided, but even in a world where the essentials are reversed, Lee Jae-myung is the only one working hard and the rest are fighting. Why are Koreans, regardless of gender, blinded by power?

Originally, a woman's enemy is another woman. Historically, there is a shared war gene that swept through the harsh fate and unimaginable experience of being a comfort woman, and because there are many things to throw away without hesitation for survival, women's cruelty sometimes knows no children or husbands. Carl Jung called this the Oedipus and Electra complex, but from a 21st-century perspective, it is simply a limitation of human beings themselves. Whether humanity coexists or perishes together, Korean women will become a benchmark in their primitivity and extremity.