[Column] A shameless society reinvented

Choi Hoon
The author is the chief editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Admitting to one’s own wrongdoing and accepting responsibility are hard for everyone. A former senior prosecutor, who had witnessed the execution of 10 death row inmates in October 1994, recalled his memory of the event (Korea has not carried out an execution since 1997). “I thought they would give up everything and seek forgiveness before deaths. But most of them could not admit to their wrongdoings until their final moments,” he said. “I was shocked to see their hatred toward the society and laws. An inmate complained why he, an accomplice, had to die instead of the main culprit. But I could not tell him that the main culprit was executed just before him.”

It may be an extreme case, but normally, admitting to a wrongdoing is not so easy. You could be afraid of isolation from society and public criticism, not to mention subsequent mental and material loss after admitting to your wrongdoing. Our culture is also playing a part as we are particularly lacking generosity toward other people’s mistakes. Instead of praising the courage of taking responsibility, people resort to social media to identify the wrongdoers and attack them until they suffer irrecoverable damages. No wonder everyone is seeking all possible excuses to dodge responsibility. We all try to make other people scapegoats. Priests preach every Sunday to accept faults, but people just cannot escape the human bondage.

Top headlines of newspapers and subtitles of main news reports are always filled with excuses. As a process to resolve a problem is missing, we only see offense and defense. It is not an exaggeration that most of the energy of the country is spent to find excuses. If Gyeongbok Palace should collapse, the final responsibility would fall on Regent Heungseon Daewongun of the Joseon Dynasty for poor construction after endless political fights to hold someone accountable for the crumble and uninterrupted debates through social media. We have reached the moment when the prosecution’s investigations and court rulings are being denied.

Let’s say it’s the case of ordinary people. But public servants — paid with tax and entrusted with state affairs — should take responsibilities as strong as their powers. A sophisticated Hyunmoo-2C missile, which costs 2 billion won ($1.6 million) for each launch, flew backwards immediately after it was fired during an exercise and fell on a golf course at a military base nearby. The missile is one of the main weapons to counter North Korean nuclear threats. That’s a grave problem linked to people’s safety during wartime. And yet, no one from the military, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, the Agency for Defense Development or the manufacturer is taking responsibility. We really don’t know if the government is reviewing and modifying the system. The only explanation we heard was a brief statement form the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that some faulty parts of the weapon were suspected as the cause. That’s not all. A suspicion arose that the government had attempted to conceal the North Korean drone infiltration into the airspace over the presidential office.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min apologizes for his inappropriate remarks about the Itaewon tragedy at a full meeting of the Public Administration and Security Committee of the National Assembly, January 1, nearly two months after the tragedy. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

Avoiding responsibility is a declaration that you are not in charge. You can avoid damages briefly — or maybe permanently if you are lucky.

The fatal crowd crush in Itaewon claimed 158 lives, but none of the public servants took responsibility. Until Interior Minister Lee Sang-min offered an apology on behalf of the government on Jan. 6, only the heads of the Yongsan District Office and Yongsan Police Station were arrested during the past two months.

Former top officials of the Moon Jae-in administration have gathered to uphold the accomplishments of the liberal government — all failed policies such as income-led growth, nuclear phase-out and punitive real estate market control. They are forming a forum to hail the achievements instead of taking responsibility for the fiascoes. The forum’s name is “Saeuijae,” named after the great philosopher Dasan Jeong Yak-yong’s residence where he had stayed during his 18-year exile in Gangjin, South Jeolla. One of the letters he sent to his relatives and students said, “Unless the abolished people study and hold back their actions to protect their good nature, they should rather disappear. If you do not sever relationships with them, you will be in big trouble.”

Korea in particular has many old sayings about dodging responsibility. Some say there are 26 of them, including “There is no grave without an excuse” and “If the blind fall, he blames the cane.” A new one has been added to the long list. “When it is about me, it is a romance. When it is about other people, it is an affair,” people say.

Scholars attribute the problem to the hierarchical Confucian culture which restricted the people’s choices and freedom. Under such culture of submission, your responsibility becomes unclear and you become nonexistent in a group. They agree that the distinction between public and private and between reason and emotion has become difficult after escapism has become innate in our identity.

Even after the liberation from Japan’s colonial rule, collaborators with the Japanese were not held accountable. During the military dictatorships, politicians and businessmen maintained cozy relationships and real estate speculation was rampant. In a world where irregularities produced wealth, people tended to escape from reality, other scholars pointed out.

Avoiding responsibility is a declaration that you are not in charge. You can avoid damages briefly — or maybe permanently if you are lucky. But there will be no opportunity for work, the time for reflection and growth, or the possibility to win profits for those who always give up being the master of their own lives.

The highest virtue required for politicians and public servants is to create policies under their own names and to take responsibility. How can we entrust the country to those who gave up being the owners?

In the new year, I hope our society matures and its members take responsibility rather than shunning it.