TEACHINGS from ancestors, dead or alive, are worth taking significantly because they are absolutely unselfish pieces of advice for a successful life associated with posterity. In household gatherings on occasions like Chuseok that people celebrated earlier this particular month in Southern Korea, teachings are passed down from the older to younger decades.
Parents will want to deliver to their kids the advice they have received from their personal parents with some adjustments they feel are necessary out of their long term experiences. Meanwhile, their sons and daughters should listen and never openly raise objections. As children get older, this kind of communication, usually in the form of one-way visitors, goes on to form a family tradition.
The above mentioned pattern, however , is within flux in contemporary Korea. Elections are times when perception gaps on major problems become apparent in between generations, genders as well as individual family members. We now have just observed this kind of differences in two nationwide elections this year. Nevertheless, we cannot keep ourselves from identifying a set of social edicts to pronounce with opportune times to be able to clarify the generous democratic identity of contemporary Koreans.
Moses’ Ten Commandments offer a good style to emulate. I have worked out 10 clauses to summarise what I think are the most important principles of life that will present-day citizens of South Korea should follow, no matter what political changes may take place in this country. As the North Korean problem is the mother of all troubles, it begins with this line for Commandment One:
“You shall not identify North Korea within the northern half of the particular Korean Peninsula being a democracy or a republic. ” No paraphrasing is necessary for this terms, as we have seen videos of the celebrations in Pyongyang of the 74th anniversary of the North’s founding with the third-generation ruler Kim Jong-un in the throne. This of course is a warning to the sizeable quantity of pro-North Korean activists who gained prominence during the previous Celestial satellite Jae-in administration.
Commandment Two: “You shall not seek to change North Korea from its nuclear hands policy and hostility against South Korea with whatever levels of economic assistance or even humanitarian aid. ”
Since the 1950-53 Korean War, effective South Korean government authorities have knocked on Pyongyang’s door with various proposals of material aid and actually supplied cash and goods. These were methods taken with the aim of easing military stress and taking mutual steps toward reunification. Brief shows of amity were followed by further deterioration of bilateral relations and ever-heightening nuclear blackmail.
Commandment Three: “Maintain a strong military alliance with the United states of america until we protected our own nuclear features and delivery system on par with or above North Korea’s, and continue conducting joint workouts with the US so the US extended nuclear deterrence can make sure no possibility of battle on the peninsula. ”
Then, we have to address the connections with our closest nearby neighbours. Commandment Four states: “Do not let the issues of Korean forced labourers plus wartime comfort ladies stand in the way of improving relations between Seoul and Tokyo and make it clear to the Chinese language that economic assistance on free and equal terms with out political interference serves the best interests from the two countries. ”
Commandment Five: “Domestic politics should evolve to realize a stable balance between the left and right in all consultant bodies, and to make certain equal opportunities for changes of government power in order for the particular supreme values associated with freedom and equal rights to be perfectly guaranteed. ”
Within political parties, older members need to market internal unity. Keep in mind the split from the conservative ruling party during Park Geun-hye’s presidency, which led to her ousting via impeachment in 2017. The subsequent five years were marked by economic confusion and disoriented North Korea policy under leftist rule.
Commandment Six: “Politicians should refrain from bringing conflicts, either internal or even external, to the court, ultimately offering their own fate to the tough logic of jurists instead of the people’s view. ”
In recent decades, political revenge in South Korea has switched increasingly ugly, because new powerholders exposed former rivals and potential challengers in order to criminal procedures. The brand new rulers exercised their particular power of appointment to introduce beneficial lineups of prosecutors and judges. It was most conspicuous during the former Moon Jae-in administration. Regrettably, older members of the present ruling People Power Party have also asked the court’s intervention to settle internal strife.
Commandment Seven: “Whoever seeks a leadership position with the public’s trust should see to it that no member of the family has ever used forged documents in seeking jobs, created academic papers of dubious content within preparation for levels nor engaged in share price manipulation or even speculation on properties to increase wealth. ”
Commandment Eight: “Young people ought to get married, bear kids and build strong willpower to combat inevitable adversities in every area of your life. ”
Commandment Nine: “The mass media should live up to their particular mission of finding information and disseminate all of them correctly without malice or favouritism, whilst their audience ought to help establish order in the media marketplace by using their great senses in weeding out unqualified players. ”
YouTube movies, social media posts plus internet newspapers are filling an unlimited world with a mixture of lies, half-truths and some factual reports. They produce a huge amount of inappropriate content which lead to creating unnecessary disputes and raise the sound level in our modern society.
Commandment Ten: “Industrial workers, instructors, public servants, medical doctors, self-employed businesspeople along with other interest groups should not seek to obtain more compared to their fair share in the social distribution norm by using their own collective powers, since it amounts to robbing from others. ”
Moses’ Ten Commandments contained God’s plan to make sure that the individuals he saved from Egyptian slavery could live freely and peacefully in the chosen land of Canaan. South Koreans who have achieved material wealthiness and liberal democracy through great toil over the past seven years since the war have found themselves in sour conflicts over interpersonal, political and economic divisions.
The particular older generation, including me personally, is concerned that youthful people may have no idea about how to live with no economic and political environment they today enjoy once the present absurdities grow even worse and everything is usually lost. Responsible people are invited to create their own Ten Commandments as mutual warnings to each other. – The Korea Herald/ANN
Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald and previous managing editor from the Korea Times.