Kim Dae-jung - Political Prisoners

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ANALYSIS & FEATURE

FRIDAY AUGUST 21, 2009

When great leaders are ahead of their time Punishment is occupational hazard for people with great political vision By Chris Williams

The sad news of the death of Kim Dae-jung evokes memories of other great leaders who spent time in prison. Punishment is an occupational hazard for people with great political vision. “Good criminals” pervade the history of visionary leadership. The story of Jesus is the most obvious example. He was developing the ethics of forgiveness, justice and peace in a RomanJewish political regime where power was legitimized by injustice, merciless torture and killings. Kim was following this tradition when he wrote in his prison letters, “The happiness we derive from becoming Christian consists of loving, not hating, our enemies.” He explained that Jesus “was executed as a political prisoner by the Jewish ruling class and the Roman Empire for standing up for the rights of the oppressed and the poor.” The political and spiritual leaders who are facing trial in Iran this week are in the same situation. They have the vision to see that things must change, and have tried to evolve the system peacefully. Websites are replacing prison letters, and this week opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi complained of rape and other abuses in prisons — “Some young people were beaten to death just for chanting slogans in post-election protests.” In South Africa, Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, 18 years on Robben Island where he was only permitted two visitors and two letters each year. Yet he immerged to become one of the most respected statesmen in the world. Earlier in South Africa, Gandhi’s string of imprisonments started when he infringed British racist — laws. As an independence activist in India, he was arrested and tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years — imprisonment in 1922. Later he, and the whole Congress working — Committee, was arrested. He spent another two years in prison, and his wife died after 18 months in jail. The fate of Aung san Suu Kyi in the Burmese courts this week follows the same pattern. The charges are fictitious even under Burmese law. The sentence is to silence her and send a warning to others who may think like her. Kim Dae-jung was banned from politics and imprisoned for five years in 1976 for helping with an antigovernment manifesto. When Park Chung-hee was assassinated in 1979, Kim

Chris Williams ● Chris

Williams is based at the Center for International Education and Research, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

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was reinstated. But in 1980, during the coup by Chun Doohwan, Kim was arrested and sentenced to execution on charges of sedition and conspiracy. The sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison. Last year, the British Library presented an exhibition of its historical holdings around the theme of the Nobel Prize. One of the most moving exhibits was a small letter written by Kim to his wife, from prison. As for Mandela, letters were limited, and so to optimize the small amount of paper he was permitted, his writing is tiny. But he also used another device to double the usage of the paper. Having filled both sides in the normal way, he simply turned the page 90 degrees and continued, writing across his original words in a way that was crowded but could be deciphered. But we remember brave men more than brave women. Before Kim, Yu Gwan-sun had suffered imprisonment for organizing independence protests against the Japanese in 1919. She was giv-

en a seven year prison sentence, aged 16. From inside Seodaemun prison she continued her protests, but was beaten and seemingly died from torture. When the history of North Korea is written, who will be recognized as the “good criminals” who stood up to the regime? Little known women such as Cho Sung-hye, who was returned to North Korea against her wishes by China, may be an example. It is not just political leaders who have been imprisoned and punished for being ahead with their ideas. Galileo’s support for the view that the Earth was not the center of the universe led to problems with the Roman Inquisition. In 1632 he was imprisoned for heresy, forced to say he was wrong, and he then spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Even the German composer J. S. Bach suffered a similar fate. His employer, the Duke of Wiemer, would not let the brilliant composer leave his service to visit England. Bach complained strongly about the in-

justice, and the Duke put him in prison where he wrote the “Little organ book.” Following Galileo’s tradition of scientific dissent, in the 1950s Andrei Sakharov had worked to stop nuclear proliferation. Like Kim, in 1975 Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1980 he was arrested for protesting against the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, and was punished by being sent into exile in Gorky. The factor that creates “good prisoners” is a fear of the power of ideas. But the lesson from history is that you may be able to imprison a person, but you cannot imprison an idea. The former SecretaryGeneral of the World Trade Organization, Mike Moore, wrote in his autobiography, “It is wrong to be right too soon?” He became the focus of civil society challenges to unfair practices at the WTO, most notably at the “Battle of Seattle” in 1999. But he was not responsible for initiating these polices. And, because journalists often copy stories from one another

instead of doing proper research, the world did not know his heart was with the demonstrators. I only learned later from an interview with Moore that he had been a social worker and ardent trade’s unionist. Before his time at the WTO, in a book called “A brief history of the future,” he had written, “Citizens will not, and should not, accept any form of international regulation or institution over which they have little control.” He argued that NGOs “should be welcomed by professional policy makers as part of democratization. They represent tens of thousands of invisible networks circling and tying the globe together. That’s good. It’s not a danger. It’s the privatization of influence from the powerful to the many. God bless the internet. Governments can no longer control ideas or people.” A year after writing this, Moore was vilified at the Seattle protests. Visionary leaders can be in as much danger from those they support, as from those they

Why is North Korea opening up to the South? The most obvious reason is money. Impoverished North Korea’s economy, already broken by years of mismanagement and global sanctions, has taken further hits this year from heavy rains that hurt its crucial farm sector, a loss of aid from the South — roughly equal to about 5 percent of its estimated $17 billion a year GDP — caused by political wrangling and new U.N. sanctions for the nuclear test aimed at cutting off its arms trade that is a key source of hard currency.

Why does the North need the money? North Korea uses foreign currency to buy items abroad needed for its military and nuclear programs as well as to purchase perks for its ruling elite and the military. Leader Kim, 67, has moved forward with his succession plans after he apparently suffered a stroke a year ago and needs the backing of powerful military and communist party figures to secure a smooth path to power for his designated heir, his youngest son, analysts said. North Korea may also be looking to rebuild its main nuclear plant that had been disabled under a six-way nuclear deal. Will the move have any impact on stalled nuclear talks? The North’s recent moves likely indicate Pyongyang may be finished with its recent round of provocations and signal it is ready to try diplomacy. This will likely ease concerns among investors who were worried about troubles spinning out of control, which could lead to heavy damage to the globally vital economies of North Asia. Analysts do not expect any breakthrough in the talks

among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, especially after Pyongyang said it saw that process as dead and signaled it wants to talk directly with Washington. Will Kim be seen as buckling? Quite the contrary. The visit of Bill Clinton this month to secure the freedom of the two American journalists held in the North was portrayed by the North’s media as proof that the country’s recent nuclear test and missile launches were a stunning victory for Kim and that resulted in the former U.S. president coming to Pyongyang to pay tribute and negotiate. By sending a delegation to the funeral of Kim Dae-jung, whose “Sunshine Policy” of engagement with Pyongyang started a steady stream of aid to the impoverished state, the North’s leaders can show their anger at current President Lee Myungbak who has effectively ended the policy by linking handouts to the North’s disarmament. On Sunday, Kim Jong-il met the chairwoman of the powerful Hyundai Group, a major investor in the North for about a decade, where they agreed to resume stalled business ties. The

from being one of the poorest to one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and from having its women abused as “comfort women,” to producing the first woman independence activist, to having a work by a woman composer premiered at a Prom Concert. In her research explaining how leadership has contributed to such rapid positive change in Korea, Yun-joo Lee uses the term “cultural shift.” Korean leaders like Kim were able to “shift” Korean people from a culture of oppression and tired Confucian traditions, towards a community that is set to launch a space rocket with technology that is world-leading. Chin’s music and Kim’s death symbolize the importance of “cultural shifts.” If she wants to visit England from Germany, however brilliant her music, Chin is unlikely to end up in prison like Bach. And whatever the horrors he suffered from fellow Koreans, Kim did not, like Yu and many other visionary leaders, die in a prison cell. That’s cultural progress.

U.S. gambles on diplomatic gains in N.K., Myanmar

What is behind N.K.’s conciliatory moves? Reclusive North Korea confirmed yesterday that it would send a delegation to the South to mourn former President Kim Dae-jung, who died earlier this week, in the latest sign of easing tensions with the outside world. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has made a number of conciliatory gestures this month, marking a change in tone by his defiant state after it stoked tensions with a nuclear test in May, missile launches and threats to attack the South. Following are some questions and answers about the moves:

challenge, especially if journalists don’t do their homework properly. Last week another visionary Korean was in London. The composer Unsuk Chin had her Cello Concerto premiered at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall Prom concerts. I was there with a friend, Korean scholar Yun-joo Lee. Chin’s music is not easy to appreciate. It is technically brilliant, and likely to appeal more to a music professor than to general concert goers, but she was warmly welcomed by an enthusiastic audience. We started to discuss the other aspects. Chin was born in 1961, when Korea was a poor country. It is remarkable that she studied music, or even had a piano, at that time. She went to study in Germany, where she is now based, which was a brave move for any Korean, especially a girl. Her Cello Concerto is the first piece of Korean music to be played at the Prom concerts, and even in Britain women composers are still not common. In 60 years, Korea has moved

Kim Ki-nam (left), secretary of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of North Korea, and Kim Yang-gon, department director of the central committee of the party. They will head the North Korean delegation to mourn former President Kim DaeYonhap News jung.

meeting will be trumpeted as a tribute showing one of South Korea’s leading conglomerates has great respect for Kim, which can serve as a jab at President Lee. How much could North Korea earn? By allowing tourism to resume at the Mount Geumgang resort, located in North Korea and run by a Hyundai affiliate, Pyongyang can receive tens of millions of dollars by the end of the year. The North was also seeking to increase wages and rents paid at a joint factory park in the

North Korean border city of Gaeseong, run by the same Hyundai affiliate, which could again earn its leaders tens of millions of dollars by year’s end. There has been no indication a deal was reached to increase payments when Kim met Hyundai Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun. By improving ties with South Korea, the North may be hoping for a resumption of food and fertilizer aid. The South used to send about 400,000 to 500,000 tons of rice and about 300,000 tons of fertilizer to the North each year but that has been halted since Lee took office in February 2008. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The White House is willing to gamble that high-profile missions by former president Bill Clinton to North Korea and Senator Jim Webb to Myanmar this month will boost efforts to engage hardline foes, experts say. But despite some early signs of progress, critics say that engagement can carry heavy risks to U.S. policy and image abroad, and that the potential for damage to U.S. diplomatic efforts outweighs the possible rewards. President Barack Obama has advocated talks with U.S. foes, including with long-time adversaries Syria and Iran, and views them as a way to coax Pyongyang to renounce its nuclear ambitions and to urge the military rulers in Myanmar to release political prisoners. Washington has also said it was open to dialogue with Tehran amid rising tensions over its nuclear aims, and has sent a series of military and diplomatic missions to Damascus in recent months to resuscitate Middle East peace prospects. The administration described as “private” visits Clinton’s dash to North Korea where he secured a pardon for two U.S. journalists and Webb’s trip to Myanmar where he brokered the release of an American man jailed after swimming to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s house.

But analyst John Ciorciari, assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, believes the missions were “absolutely a strategy” by the Obama administration. “Engagement is worth doing and worth trying but it is important for us to do it on our terms and not to allow the rogue regimes to dictate the terms for our engagement,” he said. “The question is, ‘Can we continue this form of engagement in a way that puts us in the driver’s seat?’” Critics say that dealing with rogue regimes may only encourage the capture of more U.S. citizens. The military rulers in Myanmar “have gotten this burst of publicity and legitimacy for freeing this American,” said former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, even though “their behavior is fundamentally illegitimate.” And in North Korea, Kim Jong-il “is now put on an equivalent level with a former president of the United States,” Bolton told AFP. “The fact that the two examples take place so close together in time just underlines the risk that others will use Americans to extract ransom.” Meanwhile, the benefits for the Obama administration and its allies have been more subtle.