Positive and negative legacies

A memorial hall for the late former President Park Chung-hee was opened Tuesday, 13 years after legislation was enacted to that end. A three-story building with a combined area of 5,290 square meters, the hall might not look superb in appearance but contains Park’s historical accomplishments, including the five-year economic plan, construction of the Gyeongbu Expressway, the Saemaeul Movement, or a state-led development program for rural areas in the 1970s, and the boom of the heavy and chemical industries. The hall is a symbol of Korea’s industrialization and modernization. The late former President Kim Dae-jung, who was a long-time adversary of Park, proposed the construction.

To Park Geun-hye, acting chairwoman of the ruling Saenuri Party and daughter of Park Chung-hee, the hall is a positive legacy. It offers more light than shadow of her father’s deeds. The Jeongsoo Scholarship Foundation, however, is a negative legacy. The foundation was named after her father’s first name Chung (Jeong in Korean) and her mother’s name Soo (from Yook Young-soo). The Buil Scholarship Foundation, which was formed by Kim Ji-tae, a businessman and politician from Busan, was the matrix of the scholarship foundation. It was started under the name 5.16 Scholarship Foundation and was later changed to the Jeongsoo Scholarship Foundation in 1982. The foundation owns 100 percent of the daily Busan Ilbo and 30 percent of the broadcast network MBC.

The scholarship foundation has been at the heart of a dispute after the Busan Ilbo union demanded in November last year that the company be "returned to society" while asking for the voting right of its president. The foundation has been used as an attack against Park Geun-hye ahead of big election seasons. The controversy is over whether Kim Ji-tae gave up the Buil Scholarship Foundation voluntarily or was pressured to do so by the government. Kim Ji-tae was arrested in 1961 for allegedly having illegally accumulated wealth related to the May 16 coup d`état. Park Geun-hye chaired the board of the Jeongsoo Scholarship Foundation from 1995 to 2005, and whether she still influences the foundation is also at the heart of the debate.

“Since I left the Jeongsoo Scholarship Foundation, I`ve had nothing to do with it,” she said. Opposition parties, however, are urging her to return the foundation to society, saying it had been stolen. Park Geun-hye could be legally right but not in de facto terms. The activities of Philip Choi, incumbent board chairman of the foundation who was presidential secretary to Park Chung-hee in 1978, and five board members, suggest that she still influences the foundation. While inheriting a good legacy is crucial, doing away with negative legacies is equally important. Park Geun-hye should more actively and clearly resolve this matter once and for all.

Editorial Writer Lee Jin-nyong (jinnyong@donga.com)