President Wen “Airborne, how is it connected with dictatorship? I don’t understand in common sense”

In particular, the airlift can be said to be the core of the reform of power institutions. In our society, the law was often unfair. There was ministry, there was privilege, there was selective justice. Since the Chun Doo-hwan administration, successive governments have been stained with power-type corruption cases by related parties such as the President himself or his relatives. Each time, the necessity of special judicial bodies that thoroughly guarantees political independence and neutrality emerged. In 1996, in the wake of the slush fund case under the regime of Doo-Hwan Chun and Tae-Woo Roh, civic groups filed a legislative petition with the signature of 151 members of the National Assembly.

The Kim Dae-jung administration started a full-scale discussion at the government level through the Judicial Reform Promotion Committee. During the 2002 presidential election, Candidate Moo-Hyun Roh put forward the government officials as a key pledge of anti-corruption policy, and after the election, he promoted legislation. If the airlift was established at the time, it would have played a major role in preventing corruption in the later regime.

In addition to the last presidential election, I also pledged to be an airlifter in the 2012 presidential election. Even at that time, if an airborne agency had been established, there might not have been a governmental nongdan under the Park Geun-hye administration. There is no assumption in history, but it was a sad history.

As such, the airlift has been discussed and promoted for over 20 years for a just country without corruption. It is by no means a matter of ideology or faction. The Grand National Party, the predecessor of the current 1st opposition party, also proposed an airlift as a pledge for the 2004 general election, and the opposition’s influential people who oppose the airlift today are those who actively asserted the airlift in the past.

It is even argued that airlift is now a means of dictatorship. It is difficult to understand in common sense how to connect this with dictatorship, which is to create another sword of circumstances against the regime’s power-type corruption. If we want our society to be more intact through power without corruption and investigation without sanctuary, I think it is necessary to join forces beyond the opposition parties so that the airlift can play its role in strict political neutrality.

On the one hand, the Ministry of Public Affairs is also significant as a means of democratic control over the prosecution. The prosecution has been criticized by the public for being a sanctuary that has no way of holding responsibility for its own faults while still having an omnipresent authority. Airlift can be an institutional device that can hold strict responsibility for internal corruption and wrongdoing by the prosecution. Until now, there has never been such a device.

No institution can exist above the people. If the prosecution is democratically controlled by the principle of check and balance, it will be an opportunity to escape from the criticism of omnipresent power and become a healthy and trusted public prosecutor. Airlift is not a monstrous organization that weakens the power of prosecution. The number of airborne prosecutors is only 25 prosecutors and 40 investigators, so there is no comparison with the prosecution organization, which has only 2,300 incumbent prosecutors. The prosecution’s power is still strong even when the airlift is established. The prosecution’s powerful authority can be a force to uphold the justice of our society. However, the people only think that checks are necessary for the power of the prosecution. I do not hope that the prosecution will accept that.

Upon completion of the procedures such as the recommendation of the Minister of Airlift and a hearing for nomination, the officially launches of the Airlift Office. Political neutrality is the lifeblood of the airlift above all. It is also important to maintain independence and neutrality from the prosecution. It takes everyone’s effort to operate neutrally. Not only members of the Ministry of Public Affairs, but also the politics, the prosecution, the media, and civil society should monitor and endeavor together. I urge the people to support us to become an organization of the people that advances our democracy to the next level. Thank you.