A former opposition leader’s controversial condolence note

A former opposition leader’s controversial condolence note. May. 20, 2016 07:54. by 정성희기자 shchung@donga.com.

“When I said I want to be born as a man next life even if it is a male bug, attendees agreed with me,” Cho Yoon-sun, a former gender equality minister, said at the “WSJ Café in Seoul,” an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal, in 2013. She said so in 2012 at a forum hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. She was criticized for claiming that she, elite who had only a good career path, was discriminated to the extent that she wants to be born as a male bug.

“’Let’s be born as a man next life with me.’ I’m so sad and sorry.” This is what Moon Jae-in, a former leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party, posted on Twitter after he visited Exit 10 of Gangnam Station, a place that has become a memorial place for a 20-something woman who was stabbed to death for no specific reason at a rest room of a bar, on Wednesday. Though he quoted a condolence note written by a female visitor to the place, it created controversy over whether it was appropriate for a presidential hopeful to write such a posting to commemorate the victim.

The suspect sneaked into the rest room of a bar and waited for a victim to arrive for one and a half hours. He said to police, “I killed her because women looked down on me.” However, it is not right to come to a conclusion that it was due to misogyny. First of all, his statement is not reliable. He who suffered schizophrenia has been hospitalized for four times for a long period since 2008. He needed someone whom he can vent his anger and the target happened to be a woman who had weak power to defend herself.

It is a reasonable step for a politician to commemorate the victim. However, a leader should be able to understand the essence of an incident. It is disappointing that Moon accepted some opinion that sees the case as misogyny uncritically. Regardless of gender, everyone can be a victim of a crime. Even if it is a killing by a misogynist, what a politician should do is making a country where both men and women do not discriminate each other and women can live safely.