Park Geun-hye’s view of May 16 revolution cititicized

The recent remarks of Rep. Park Geun-hye, the presidential hopeful of the ruling Saenuri Party, about May 16 Revolution staged by her late father Park Chung-hee, invited criticism from some local newspapers.

In a forum hosted by the Korea News Editors Association on July 16, she said “I think it was his best choice he could make at that time in view of the fact the revolution was proved to have served as a firm foundation for our national development thereafter.”

Hankyoerae and Kyunghyang Newspapers, local dailies, criticized Park through their editorials, titled “Park’s wrong historical view brings wrong future” and “How could it be the best choice?”

Kyunghyang said “a leader’s view of history is as much important as his or her political philosophy and conviction in the formation of policies directly related to people’s livelihood. She has to try to overcome the wrongdoings committed by her father. That is the development of history. It is nothing other than a challenge and provocation toward the history to deny the fact that May 16 revolution was a coup d’etat.”

Hankyoerae also said in its editorial “the works to distort historic estimation of Park Chung-hee era have already started through the revision of historic textbooks.” It concluded that “If Rep. Park becomes the President, the efforts to beautify the May 16 Revolution and Yushin System will come to the peak, eventually forcing our history to step back.”

In the meantime, Joongang Daily Newspaper viewed her remarks differently. It said in its editorial that “it is necessary to have a balanced viewpoint in the estimation of the merits and demerits of the Park Chung-hee era.”

Lee Sang-ki winwin0625@theasian.asia