Welcome to BASE21

Korea has come a long way from the dark days of the military dictators--the "illegal" and "unconstitutional" usurpers of state power who repeatedly stole the nation's destiny through their midnight political robberies. It is truly an impressive sight to witness the kind of political revolution that will surely change Korean politics forever--for the better. Even if what has transpired in the last few days fizzles out in failure this time, history tells us clearly that the spark that kindled the prairie fire will not die out but will come back in ever greater intensity. Those who try to stop the groundswell with brazen--faced sophistries that the movement now afoot is illegal will have saved their eternally condemned political lives but for a fleeting second.

The ultimate farce that shall be condemned with certainty is the fact that those who now cry in pain that the citizens' political rebellion for a just cause is an "illegal" act which must be punished, include a self-appointed fraud who once sat on the nation's highest bench as a "clean (like a bamboo)" jurist for justice and fairness. A man who even helped his two healthy sons avoid the compulsory military service!

The release of the numerous "Blacklists" of political undesirables in Korea--the scourge of the earth who ought never be allowed back into Korea's politics--will be but the tiny beginning of volcanic eruptions of megatonnage. A real earthquake of revolutionary changes in Korean politics which the nation had awaited in somber silence since at least the middle of the nineteenth century.

Korea has been a nation with the biggest collection of charlatans, crooks, and political prostitutes since at least the mid-point of the tragi-comic Chosun dynasty. And they wreaked such havoc with the lives and welfare of this poor nation--for so long.

Even if history never repeats itself, the powerful message of human annals has always been that once a powerful flow of history begins nothing at all can stand in its way, stop it, or even stall it. All the opponents who frantically try to avoid the hammer blows of popular ire and aspirations will know soon that their sordid political careers are essentially terminated if not this year, in the near future. The fact is the collection of all sorts of human dregs who now condemn the movement as "illegal" are the same people who have routinely broken the nation's laws ever since the beginning of the republic in 1948. The military coup in May 1961--a legal act? A nearly 50 year record of anti-democratic abuses of torture, murder, dishonest ballot box tamperings, euphemistically called democratic elections--were they legal acts? The loud protesters who go by the "funny" titles of "great reporters"--the dishonest columnists of the major dailies--did they ever write similar editorials and columns under the dictators? Did they ever even whimper a sound of protest when the nation was trampled under the unprofessional armed gangsters who called themselves generals? These are the people who now try to stop the groundswell of popular movement for genuine democracy. As the citizens' groups have said in unison where in this world can we find a democratic nation which tries to eliminate Ralph Naders, Common Causes, and other citizens' movements for democracy?

If nothing else, the advent of the Kim Dae-jung presidency will be recorded in history as the dawn of a truly new era of democracy for Korea. His record as the president of the nation who presided over the rapid evolution toward genuine democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people will not be denied. A guarantee!

Indeed, the world of politics in Korea has never failed to attract countless crooks and incompetents. Like the flies in summer which flock over the piles of garbage, they raise their ugly heads whenever the election season approaches to contaminate, poison, and inflict further suffering on the nation. And do they publish a mountain of junk, called publications with extravagant "book receptions" held at luxury hotels (and who pays for these?) to attract pathetic victims with their money envelopes to grease their rampage for plundering the nation for the next term of office!

Now, fortunately for Korea, a single spark that started the prairie fire for political cleansing will begin its long march for Korea's political salvation. God bless the citizens' movements for finally awakening the nation to the long-delayed task (for almost five centuries) of political renaissance. A new future looms on the horizon! The irresistible flow of history has begun its journey--and it shall never be stopped. If, per chance, it is squelched, then we ought to forget about any future for Korea. Then it ought to collapse or disappear from history as many other civilizations did that left no trace in history.

Now a new chapter will be written sometime soon with the awakening of Korea's women. If and when they coalesce, and unite for common cause and action, to throw off the stifling Confucian legacy of male dominance, it will have completed Korea's cycle of political change.