Rise with New, Win-win Community

Elderly people of every sector and representatives of civic groups all gathered under the slogan of “Construction of a New Community” and “Job Creation.”

A total of some 50 individuals announced their “2005 Request for Proposal” on the afternoon of January 6 at the International Conference Hall, 20th floor of Korea Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. Among the participants were elders of various sectors, including former Prime Minister Kang Young-hoon and former President of Korean Red Cross Seo Young-hoon and others such as Co-Chair of the Korean Federation of Environmental Movement Choi Yeol, lawyer Kang Ji-won, and the President of Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice Kim Seong-hoon.

Their requests for proposal were “the union of the socio-economically polarized society and creation of a new hope by running a human-oriented economy and society in order to create jobs and build a new community.”

All 165 dignitaries from the religious community, civil society, academia, and the cultural sector, including Cardinal Kim Soo-hwan, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea Choi Chang-moo, former Prime Minister Koh Gun, President of Yuhan-Kimberly Moon Kook-hyun, Chairperson of the Korea Foundation for Women Park Young-sook, and poet Shin Dal-ja signed to this proposal.

Former Prime Minister Kang stressed in his pep talk, saying, “The problem comes from the people’s fundamental denial of others who have different faith from them. The entire public must become one to build a new community through this request for the proposal.” Father Ham Se-ung said, “In this year of the rooster, which even sits on duck eggs and tells us the daybreak early in the morning, we have to take the initiative in practicing the universal love.”

The signatories said in their appeal, “The Korean society is at the historic crossroads of rise or fall.” They underscored the importance of crafting a new paradigm for a human-oriented economy and society, a big-scale project to create jobs, and a win-win community in which difference is accepted.”

They made separate appeals to each entity: devising an institutional framework to implement the request proposal to the government and the political circle, a need for a human-oriented and productive management paradigm to the corporate sector, control of demands for excessive pay raise to labor unions, and finally, the initiative for social integration to intellectuals and the leadership.

Yi-Young Cho lycho@donga.com