Ever since November when the political corruption in South Korea was publicized by the media, the citizens of South Korea fought to restore democracy. The people who saw a major flaw and corruption in the administration under President Park gathered every weekend in front of the Blue House since October when the scandal had been revealed. The protesters gathered holding their candle light and voiced opinions against the president; the weekly meeting, therefore, has then been referred to as “candlelight vigil.”
“I was in Korea for winter break and saw a big crowd of people holding the candles; it was shocking to see people of all ages, from very young students to old people, gathering around the street to voice their opinions,” junior Eunjae Chung said.
These Saturday candlelight gatherings were proved victorious when the Constitutional Court upheld a decision by the country’s National Assembly to impeach President Park Geun-hye over alleged corruption on March 10th (Korean time) and later in the month when the prosecutors announced that they were seeking to arrest Park on charges relating to abuse of power, accepting bribes and leaking important information.
“The whole situation is crazy; as a Korean living in America, I felt shameful to see news articles about the leaders of my country involved in such a huge scandal,” senior Yongjung Lee said.
However, this news should not be viewed as one episode of a crazy story. There is a deeper meaning that citizens, not only of South Korea but of all nations, should learn from this incident.
“I realized the power that I, as an ordinary citizen, have. This news has bigger implication that could be applied to everyone. The voice of all citizens matter; protestors in South Korea were able to successfully put their beliefs into action by going to those gatherings and eventually removing manipulative government officials from the office… I think that is incredible,” senior Mintra Limrostip said.
Few holding the government offices and official titles should not control us, but citizens should run the government and the nation. In order to do so, we, the people, need to take more responsibility and pay careful attention to every move that the government is taking and carefully detect any problems or issues that may cause troubles.