Yoon Hee-sook: "What I've Seen All My Life Is 586 Activists Enjoying Benefits... How Much More Difficult Must It Be for Young People"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Yoon Hee-sook, a member of the People Power Party, rebutted Yoon Ho-jung, chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, who said, "(The opposition) have been enjoying the sweet benefits of dictatorship their whole lives, and now they are accusing the opposing party of dictatorship," by stating, "What I have seen my whole life is the 586 activist group enjoying the sweet benefits."

On the 9th, Yoon said on Facebook, "The sweet benefit I have seen my whole life is that of the 586 generation, so it is absurd that they (the 586) are talking about sweet benefits."

He added, "I just heard Chairman Yoon's remark on the radio this morning on my way to work, saying, '(The opposition) have been enjoying the sweet benefits of dictatorship their whole lives, and now they are accusing the opposing party of dictatorship.' Hearing this clearly through the radio cleared up many questions," and continued, "Opposition lawmakers protesting in the meeting room must have unknowingly pressured him, so his usual thoughts probably burst out."

Yoon said, "He did not refute the opposition's protest that their behavior violated legitimate democratic procedures," and "Rather, his statement meant, 'Now that we want to enjoy some sweet benefits, it is not your turn to interfere because you enjoyed them a lot in the past.'"

He went on, "In other words, if the mindset is 'We, who did not have the chance to enjoy the sweet benefits before, are justified in whatever we do now,' it explains the current behavior of the ruling party," adding, "Whether they enjoyed the sweet benefits in the past or not does not justify the distorted political behavior now."

Yoon also questioned the factual basis of the remarks. He criticized, "The central figures of political power now are those who spent their youth after democratization as students in the 1980s," and said, "Over the 30 years since graduating from university, what I have been most disappointed by and accustomed to is seeing the seniors and colleagues who loudly advocated democracy and the people during school days cleverly enjoying the sweet benefits."

He continued, "During the DJ administration and the Participatory Government, they used their tightly knit activist networks as their greatest asset to navigate politics and the economy, employing various irregular methods," and added, "The activist leaders who seemed the most admirable during undergraduate days compulsively used relationships to achieve early success, some fell from grace intoxicated by that success, but many still enjoy their own sweet-benefit lives."

Yoon said, "I, at age 50, cannot even grasp how much the industrialization generation enjoyed the sweet benefits under developmental dictatorship," and stated, "What I have seen my whole life is the 586 activist group mocking the lives of ordinary hardworking people while enjoying the sweet benefits."

He concluded, "Now that these people, who have reached middle age, intend to permanently enjoy the sweet benefits by ruining the country's systems and institutions through activist dictatorship," and said, "If I, at age 50, feel this way, how much harder must it be for young people struggling in a narrowed opportunity landscape?"

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.