[Editorial] Citizens Should Discern Lies and Demagogy

Today, we are living in a society where the line discerning truth from lies has become increasingly blurred. U.S. beef, for which 300 million citizens and 2.5 million Koreans living in the United States routinely consume, turned preposterously into meat prone to mad cow disease here. Violent protests lynching riot police and attacking conservative news media and reporters are praised, while the government employing law enforcement to prevent violence is described as evil. As history suggests, no country can stand on its own feet when groundless rumors beat science and lies prevail over truth in society. How and by whom has this chaos been created? Everyone knows that the People’s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease, some media such as MBC and KBS and Internet portal sites are mainly responsible for spreading false and unfounded information on U.S. beef imports.

Then, what is their intention? Is it because they wholeheartedly want to secure public food safety and promote national development? Unfortunately, it is becoming clear that their real intention is to overthrow the Lee Myung-bak administration, rather than resolve public concerns over U.S beef safety. In this regard, what they really want is to topple the legitimate government, which was elected by the people under a democratic constitution. To top it off, some politicians and leftist groups have joined the bandwagon to protect their vested interests and hamper the administration. Their attack of the conservative dailies – the Dong-A Ilbo, Chosun Ilbo, and JoongAng Ilbo- and threats against corporations that run ads in the newspapers originated from their intent to eliminate such media standing in their path.

It is heartbreaking to see not a few ordinary citizens be fooled by their seditious fraudulence. According to a poll conducted by the Munhwa Daily Tuesday, 61 percent of citizens who responded said they wanted to stop candlelight vigils, but as much as 64 percent of respondents said the danger of mad cow disease hasn’t been resolved despite the additional negotiations by the government. On the violent nature of the recent protests, 44.7 percent of respondents replied that excessive government crackdown is mainly responsible. With these results, we believe a host of citizens have been deceived by the ill-balanced and deliberate distortion of the truth spread by news media including TV, newspapers, and the Internet.

On this, we need look no further than the beef incident. The People’s Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease openly say that the current impasse over U.S. beef will be resolved if the government renegotiates the terms of imports. However, let’s be clear. With second rounds of additional negotiations with the United States, the government has successfully obtained a guarantee from the country to prevent beef from cattle older than 30 months from entering the Korean market. It also secured import suspension if mad cow disease occurs in the United States, extension of import restrictions on specified risk materials (SRMs), and the right to inspect U.S. slaughterhouses. In other words, the incumbent administration virtually withdrew results equivalent to a renegotiation over U.S. beef imports, while it successfully managed to avoid national burden that the renegotiation would bring.

Although the government made mistakes in dealing with the beef negotiation more carefully, its failure in the negotiations has nothing to do with mad cow disease. On its failure to look closely at the resumption deal, the government has dearly paid the price. Through additional negotiations, it tried to make up for the public outcry over health safety, removing the danger. The leftwing groups, however, have turned a deaf ear to all these efforts and continue insisting on a renegotiation. In this sense, all they want is seemingly to drive the Lee administration into a corner.

As if it that is not enough, the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice held an outdoor mass to denounce the recent police crackdown on protesters. Although they say they wanted to lead non-violent protests, their placards read “Candlelight Prevails,” vividly revealing their true colors. Clergymen should be careful in their actions and words, and serve as good models of securing truth for the public. However, the behavior of the Catholic Priests’ Association is regrettable in that they aimed to revive the momentum of candlelight vigils, offering their support of anti-government violent rallies. In this regard, some liberal protestant and Buddhist groups are not free from criticism for their similar plans of staging protests in front of Seoul City Hall.

Although the administrative leadership is mainly responsible for leading the nation on the right track, citizens should also play a pivotal role to correct the current situation. All countries around the world are struggling to keep up with ever-changing situations. Some experts warn that the nation could face a worse economic crisis than the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. Against this backdrop, the nation has been wasting time and energy embroiled with the U.S. beef issue. Instead of the truth, lies and falsehood have been widespread and people have been engrossed in ideological division. All these cacophonies have paralyzed the administration for two months.

The time has come for the public to step forward to put the disordered and confused nation on the right path. It is not important whether they support the government or not. What counts at the moment is that the nation and the people should find a way to sustain and survive. If the citizens chime in with distortions and falsities while sitting on their hands, someday they may see the nation’s future fall on the wrong hands.