Human rights award for Gadhafi?

Anti-American sentiment has dominated Korea’s leftwing groups along with sentiment toward self-government, anti-imperialism and anti-foreign forces. To leftists, pro-American sentiment is evil and anti-American sentiment is good. Even when the Korean government staged a military coup and was corrupt, the leftists admired the government if it was anti-American and overthrew it if it was pro-American. This was also true with the anti-establishment leftist groups in the 1970s that worshipped leaders such as North Korea`s Kim Il Sung, Libya`s Moammar Gadhafi and Cuba`s Fidel Castro.

The Ven. Jin Gwan, a leading leftist Buddhist monk, wrote in June 2002, “Why don’t we have a leader like Gadhafi?” He said, “Libya has been well off after Gadhafi drove out the U.S. We must learn from Libya how to live without the U.S. presence in our country.” After 42 years of iron-fisted rule, Gadhafi has resorted to killing his own people yearning for democracy and the world is now pressing him to step down. So how does the monk feel about the Libyan crisis now after having said, “Libya has become an example of putting the people`s livelihood as an utmost concern because the people are living a happy life?”

The late professor Lee Young-hee, a representative leftist who died late last year, also praised Gadhafi. In his 2005 biography, he said, “Gadhafi staged a coup in a newly emerging and self-existent state Libya, successfully reversing the puppet regime dominated by Western imperialism. Gaddafi immediately nationalized oil refineries that Western capital possessed. This was the Arab people’s resistance to exploitation by Western capitalism.” Lee had said he felt he was being liberated from the despair stemming from the severe domestic situation.

The Buddhist Committee for Human Rights in Seoul, which has promoted anti-American movements since its foundation by the monk in 1990, gave the Buddhist Human Rights Award to Gadhafi in 2003. The group praised the Libyan dictator for taking the initiative in supporting freedom, justice and equality, complimented his noble character, and placed "high trust on his humanist idea for creating a righteous and equal society." Committee members visited Libya in 1996 and 2001 and created an association for friendly relations with Libya. It is absurd that the leftist groups chose Gadhafi’s Libya as a utopia. He is a devil who kills his own people for the sake of his own survival.

Editorial Writer Kwon Sun-taek (maypole@donga.com)