Moral strength built on a life against odds

By F.J. Khergamvala

TOKYO, OCT. 13. A small but proud, achievement-oriented nation celebrated its evening in the sun as its President, Mr. Kim Dae- jung, was finally named in Oslo as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, after being nominated 14 times.

The entire South Korean media had already geared itself to release the news about Mr. Kim winning the prize this year. Thus, when the announcement was made this evening, all TV stations put out their scripted features on the man who stood up against some of the most vile military dictatorships. Dailies and TV stations had already despatched reporters to the Norwegian capital in anticipation of the award, which is not entirely popular in Seoul, a capital with many opponents of Mr. Kim's peace overture.

In truth, the award for the 75-year-old Mr. Kim came after a huge diplomatic cum media campaign orchestrated from the Blue House in Seoul, which even offered selected Tokyo based Scandinavian journalists one on one interviews with Mr. Kim. Publicly, to ward off criticism, the President's Office maintained a low profile.

Yet, none of this detracts from the cause attached to the person. In a career of standing firm against oppression and demonstrating resolve, his adherence to the `sunshine policy' with North Korea symbolises the steadfastness against heavy odds. Were it only that the `sunshine policy' was to be the sole citatory reason for the award, most regional observers would have characterised it as premature and cited the current flare-up in the West Bank as evidence of the haste with which the Nobel Committee bestowed its grace on the former Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzak Rabin, the Israeli leader, Mr. Shimon Peres and the Palestinian leader, Mr. Yasser Arafat and, incidentally on a peace process crafted in the city that gives the Nobel Peace award.

The peace prize is not just about the two years of `sunshine' engagement and tolerance for the conduct of a strange regime in North Korea, but for 40 years of public life during which he has been incarcerated, tortured, beaten, kidnapped from a hotel room, exiled, sentenced to death, all at the hands of his own country's regime. Yet, by the time Mr. Kim came to power after four attempts at the presidency, he had managed to acquire such moral strength as to avoid being vindictive.

The man at the head of the military regime which decided to put him to death, Gen. Chun Doo-hwan, today lives in Korea a free man, disgraced by his own corruption and greed and not as the target of a President who refused to stoop to conquer.

Mr. Kim was born to a rich peasant family in December 1925 on an island near Mokpo in the south of a now divided peninsula. After some years of accountancy and editing a small paper, Mr. Kim was elected to the National Assembly in 1960. A year later, this Roman Catholic began his campaign against the Park Chung-hee military junta's brutality which was then blessed by the U.S., a benefactor and Cold War ally.

Mr. Kim sought to win presidential elections on the opposition ticket in 1971, 1987 and 1992. That he was abducted from Hotel Grand Palace in 1973 by South Korean agents of Park was testimony to the political threat posed by Mr. Kim who got 45 per cent of the votes in 1971. Park eventually succumbed to his own methods when he was assassinated in 1979.

In 1982, shortly after martial law was lifted, Mr. Chun Doo- hwan's military regime sentenced him to death for inciting the pro-democracy Kwangju uprising earlier. Mr. Kim avoided the gallows because of the personal intervention of the former U.S. President, Mr. Ronald Reagan. The sentence was commuted to life term, he was later released on medical grounds and then was exiled in the U.S.

Finally, in December 1997 Mr. Kim tasted Presidential victory, albeit narrowly and instantly offered the North's leaders an olive branch, partly out of necessity as the South was then focused on economic reform and forced to get a $60 billion IMF bailout package. He outlined the stick and carrot policy of standing firm on Pyongyang's provocations, yet stuck out a hand of engagement. The North Korean leader, Mr. Kim Jong Il, finally succumbed and both leaders had a historic summit, whose fruits are beginning to bear but are not yet ripe and could go sour.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Serbian polls on Dec. 24
Next     : Zhu makes the right noises in Japan