I had a chance to go by City Hall in Seoul, where many were paying respects to the late Roh Moo-hyun, ex-president of Korea, who tragically committed suicide yesterday.
As when the Mayor wanted to protect the turf in City Hall plaza during the beef protests, the entire City Hall Plaza was cut off, surrounded by buses.
The Hangyeoreh had a nice photo on the cover.
a lot of people were reading this edition.
As I approached the entrance to Deoksugung Palace, my heart kind of sank. People were lined up right down the block to pay respects to Ex-President Roh at a small shrine that had been set up.
But beside the line of people holding white flowers, was a line of police in white shirts.
Now, I won’t say they might not have been necessary, especially in Korea’s super-charged, super-polarized political landscape…but it just made me sad to see this…
surrounding these people.
They were tucking flowers into the windows of the riot police buses.
President Roh’s death is sad, and wrong, on so many levels, and one of the ones that saddens me the most is that I’ll give maximum four days before people are trying to tack Roh’s death onto their political agendas [update: already happening. sigh]. Already today, people were pushing, shouting at the police, and swearing their heads off (see video below), and whatever your politics, it’s a shame, for the sake of the Roh family, that Roh’s suicide is almost certainly going to be used as a political lever, rather than being allowed the decency of silence.
Yeah, I know he wasn’t a perfect man, and yeah, when people talk about his legacy, there’ll be good and bad points to weigh. Later we can do that. But at least for a little while, before measuring things in the balance, and deciding how much blame should be placed here and there, I’d like to just look at my hands and say, “damn.”
24/05/2009 at 3:23 am Permalink
Thank you for a beautiful, sympathetic post, and for sharing the photos.
24/05/2009 at 10:03 am Permalink
damn.
24/05/2009 at 1:09 pm Permalink
The over kill with the police was in horribly bad taste by the Lee Myung-bak government. The incompitence of the Lee government in regards to their media image is just incredible.
24/05/2009 at 2:37 pm Permalink
RIP President Rho. So sad….don’t know else to say.
26/05/2009 at 9:51 pm Permalink
I’ve been following the local blogs and mainstream news sites with some interest since Saturday, looking for JUST ONE voice to say the obvious, but I’ve gotten tired of looking, so I’ll just say it myself and hope that readers will see my point.
Roh’s death was a premeditated act of anger and self-pity, calculated to produce maximum spectacle, publicity and drama. One cannot help but presume that, in the end, Roh was thinking not of his family or friends. No, I reckon this is what he was thinking: “I’ll show you all! I shall keep my place in the sun!”
Why else would he choose the act and location as he did? A jump from a high and scenic and (nota bene) easy-to-photograph, easy-to-video cliff.
Jumping from a cliff. Just like the tragic Korean heroine in the legend. (and forgive me here my sketchy remembrance of the story- somebody else will know the details better than I do but it’s something to do with a gisaeng who sacrificed herself to kill a Japanese official or general or some such. She did it by locking her jade rings together while embracing him and then jumping off a cliff, as far as I can remember…)
Roh’s final act was narcissistic and selfish in the extreme. What a great example to set for this country’s children. Too many young people in this country kill themselves. How dare he, a man who won election to the presidency largely on the strength of support from younger and first-time voters. How dare he.