Upholding the spirit of the Constitution

Chang Se-jeong

The author is an editorial writer for the JoongAng Ilbo.

Monday was the 75th anniversary of our Constitution Day. It is a significant day when the Republic of Korea, a new-born country that gained independence in 1945, became a true nation on July 17, 1948 after then National Assembly Speaker Syngman Rhee promulgated the founding constitution.

Ahead of this year’s Constitution Day, President Yoon Seok-yeol made noteworthy remarks regarding the Constitution. On July 3, he asked his new vice ministers to “be loyal to the country, the people, and the liberal democratic system.” He also asked them to “fight against the interest cartel that destroys the spirit of the constitution.” Earlier, he told the vice minister nominees, “You must not be loyal to me [the president], but be loyal to the spirit of the Constitution.”

His remarks that public servants should be loyal to the Constitution, not the president, reminds me of what he said during a legislative audit in 2013, when he was the head of the Yeoju Prosecutors’ Office. At the time, he famously said, “I do not give my loyalty to people.”

In May last year, the president took the oath that he will abide by the Constitution. Why did he bring up the issue again in his second year in office? Chong Jong-sup, president of the Korean Studies Institute, who had served as the dean of the Seoul National University Law School and the president of the Korea Constitutional Law Association, shared his view with the JoongAng Ilbo.

Q. What do you think Yoon meant by “You should be loyal to the Constitution, not the president”?

A. If it was not political rhetoric, he is right. Among all presidents, Yoon was the first to underscore the need to respect and follow the Constitution. A normal country is a country that operates according to the Constitution, not the powers that be. This is normalization of the abnormal in terms of state affairs. Not only the vice ministers, but all public servants, including lawmakers and judges, must do so.

What do you think about deepening public distrust in the legislature and the judiciary?

As trust in the judiciary has completely collapsed, the people have no trust in trials. Judges failed to respect their original duties and conducted trials for the sake of their own gains. In the reforms of the prosecution and the judiciary, we must remove political prosecutors and judges as soon as possible and then push forward institutional reform.

What is the highest value of our Constitution?

Most of all, it recognizes that the people are the owners of the country; they are valuable beings with dignity; and it guarantees their rights accordingly. The Constitution stipulated that society must guarantee freedoms and all the people are equal before the law. To realize such a world, we adopted a government under the representation system — and the rule of law and democracy were adopted as the basis of the country. Although there were multiple constitutional amendments, these core values were never changed.

What’s your solution to address the ideological divide in our society?

The frame of distinction between friend and foe by German constitutional scholar Carl Schmitt was used during the era of dictatorship and authoritarianism, but we lacked efforts to overcome it since we achieved democratization in 1987. Without serious contemplation on how to form a normal state after democratization and stabilize democracy, politicians treated politics as a power struggle and engrossed in consolidating factionalism since the mid-1990s. When the country functions properly under the Constitution, it can be fixed.

Whether it is the president, members of the National Assembly, the judiciary, or the Constitutional Court, they should only faithfully perform the roles prescribed by the Constitution. The police, prosecution, National Tax Service, Board of Audit and Inspection, Fair Trade Commission, Bank of Korea, National Intelligence Service and others whose political neutrality is a precondition must accurately perform their roles. The basic principle of the Constitution is national integration. As demanded by the Constitution, the president must play the role of uniting the people.

Who are the “anti-state forces” the president referred to?

Anti-state forces are not specific groups. Anyone who denies or destroys the Republic of Korea is an anti-state force. Anyone who denies and destroys the Constitution are anti-state forces and destroyers of the constitution. In the era of a multidimensional war where there is no distinction between home and abroad, the country may fall if the government fails to stop anti-state forces.

March 1 Independence Movement Day, Constitution Day, Liberation Day, National Foundation Day and Hangeul Day are the five major national holidays, but the Constitution Day has been excluded from the statutory holidays since 2008, when the progressive Rho Moo-hyun administration adopted the five-day workweek. We must correct the mistake of treating the Constitution Day lightly. The day should be restored as a statutory holiday starting next year.

Ahead of it, we must remember the meaning of the Constitution Day, which we have long forgotten. We must remember the names of National Assembly Speaker Syngman Rhee, Vice Speaker Sin Ik-hui and the first Prosecutor General Kwon Seung-ryeol, who contributed to the creation of the founding Constitution during the chaotic period of sharp confrontations between the left and the right after the country’s liberation. Like in the U.S., students must think about the importance of the Constitution — and the people, who are the owners of the Constitution, must read it often. In the Constitution, we can find a solution to our society’s conflicts and visions for the future.