Photo from our South Korean correspondent.
*Por Carlos Eduardo Lagos.
A Life Journey of Presidential Candidate Lee Jae-Myung.
Deciding on a Life for Public Interests
2. Awakening to the 'Big Injustice' of the World
His college days were during the military dictatorship. It was a period of the active antidictatorship student movement. Jae-Myung was often able to witness classmates fighting the tyranny of the military dictatorship on college campuses. He was shocked by the scene where a student who was hanging from a rope outside the Central Library building, shouting slogans of "overthrow the dictatorship!" and distributing handouts, was dragged by the police.
However, he was not fully aware of the corrupt establishment of the time. He still thought of
the Gwangju Democratization Movement in 1980 as a revolt by the mob.
However, as he came across photo books and videos of the Gwangju Massacre, he gradually learned about the horrors of the 'Gwangju Massacre.' As he learned the truth of the Gwangju Massacre, feeling shameful of his ignorance, he realized that ordinary people like himself could be easily manipulated by a small number of established and corrupt forces. Later, Lee JaeMyung used to refer to Gwangju as "the social mother," as he decided to dedicate his life to fight against the absurdity of the huge corrupt establishment controlling society after he learned of the horrors of the Gwangju Massacre.
Jae-Myung was also invited to participate in the student movement. Student activists approached him more earnestly, knowing that he was a juvenile worker. But he had to ignore it painfully. He was afraid of losing his college student status, which was his only lifeline. He was able to receive monthly living expenses only by maintaining his college student status. He also had a strong desire to reform the corrupt establishment within the system itself by passing the bar exam. During his college days, he went to school wearing only rubber shoes, school uniforms, and training uniforms for four years. It was his way of expressing his sympathy for his friends who actively participated in the student movement.
In college, he came across books such as Taebaek Mountain Range, a novel about the tragedy of
the division of South and North Korea, and The Man Who Was Left as Nine Pairs of Shoes, which
depicts the harsh life of the urban poor, and inspired by them to determine his direction in life.
Being aware of the tragedy of the division of the Korean Peninsula and the contradictory social
reality, he abandoned the idea that 'I will live with power while beating someone and he decided to dedicate his life to enhancing the 'public interests' by fighting for getting rid of poverty and injustice caused by social structure while aspiring to build a community in which justice flourishes.
*Corresponsal para América Latina
