For the past year and a half, since Lee Myung-bak has been President of Korea, we have had many “issues” which have caused citizens to develop an interest in politics and express their opinions of society in a variety of ways. These many affairs made citizens have interest in politics, also express their opinions to society in various ways.
On March 9, Rhyu Si-min, an ex-minister of Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, published a brand new book Deferred Payment-Democracy. This book has ranked high on the best seller list from March to May. It took top place among political books. Nowadays many citizens have doubts about Korea’s politics and a government led by Lee Myung-bak. Citizens are reading this book due to their increased interest in politics.
Unpaid Democracy, Deferred payment-democracy
Author Rhyu Si-min was the 44th minister of Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Ministry, he worked with Roh Moo-hyun who was the 16th president of Korea. He was the moderator for 100minitues debate, a program from MBC. Then he went into politics in 2002. In February 2006, he became Minister for the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. He achieved positive results in areas such as social investment policy. He is center-left opposition and so he has criticized Lee Myung-bak policies government and the conservative mass media.
His book, Deferred Payment-Democracy is about the author’s opinion on Korea’s politics. In the book, the author said, Korea’s constitution was established in 1948 by the Constitutional Assembly, but Korea did not pay all money to be a Demoncratic nation, so now the Korean Democracy is not a complete democracy but a deferred payment-democracy. The book’s subtitle is Rhyu Si-min’s constitution essay. Like this subtitle, this book likes essay collection. In each theme, the author criticizes the current political regime and connects with the constitution clauses.
The book’s literary style is colloquial. The author wrote this book like a diary, he wrote anecdotes about each theme and connected with the constitution. Even though the writings are difficult, readers can read and understand easily with this style. However, because of this style, some readers think that the book only talks about superficial knowledge. “This book is just his diary about himself it is not for many readers.” a blogger, Kim Yeong-ho said.
The book’s content have been well received by both readers and book reviewers make sense, but they are not the reality. The fourth article of the Constitution’s is “The Republic of Korea shall seek unification and shall formulate and carry out a policy of peaceful unification based on the principles of freedom and democracy.” The author states that the current regime violates this article.
The author uses black humor in many places. He said the three subjects, the conservation government, conservation media and conservation enterprises, will make up the “Fantastic New World” for the Lee Myung-bak government.
For Democracy
Like the “Spring of Seoul” in the 70’s and 80’s, citizens were great on pitted against dictatorship government, but nowadays, people do not have interest in not only strife but also politics. However, after Lee Myung-bak became President of Korea, the interest in politics has increased. For example, citizens now gather for FTA (Free Trade Agreement) disagreements and candlelight vigils for the victims of the Yongsan Tragedy, and so on. This book gives admonitions advice? to both citizens and politicians. They can be righteous individuals by the constitution articles.
This book’s other merit is that readers can understand the concealed aspects of politics. When the author was a minister, he informally talked with President Roh Moo-hyun about the welfare fund. The author also said some episodes when he was the minister. He excused himself when he stuck in problems and showed off his well aspects. He said “This is like self-praise, but this is not, during my term of office, many honors were thanks to my supporters and colleagues.”
To all of You
The last chapter of his book is about being a knowledge retailer. The author made his business card and he wrote “Knowledge Retailer” as his occupation. After ministership, he is not a politician anymore. He just lectures at universities and writes books. However, he did not write this book for his own satisfaction or to make money. In his epilogue, to not regret after democracy is collapsed, we need “Joint of virtue.” It means a huge virtue organization to achieve goodness by pulling down evils. The author sends this message by this “democracy” book.