During the Daejeon KAIST graduation ceremony on February 16, 2024, the moment a master’s graduate shouted, “Restore the R&D budget,” a security guard stopped him by covering his mouth. Daejeon Chungnam Photo Joint Reporting Group
He had not even finished saying to President Yoon Seok-yeol, who was giving his congratulatory speech, “Restore the R&D (R&D) budget.” A presidential security guard covered the mouth of Shin Min-ki, spokesperson for the Daejeon City Party of the Green Justice Party, with his hand. Other bodyguards sitting around wearing academic uniforms carried Mr. Shin’s limbs and went out. Since he was sitting in the corner of a gym that was larger than two basketball stadiums, it was not a physical distance that could have harmed President Yoon’s body. In this way, Mr. Shin was forcibly expelled from his Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) graduation ceremony on February 16, 2024.
It’s not just ousting. The bodyguards had Mr. Shin stay in a separate room. She opened the door to retrieve her lost graduation cap while Shin was coming out, but she was stopped by a security guard. The location was moved three times, saying, “It should not overlap with the president’s movements.” He did so and he was locked up for 30 minutes. It was a forced detention without any legal basis, and Mr. Shin was arrested by the police on charges such as obstruction of business. He is said to have interfered with KAIST’s graduation ceremony.
A bunch of bodyguards rent out academic uniforms and go undercover.
This scene says a lot. First of all, the security guard’s act of covering Mr. Shin’s mouth is an oppression of freedom of expression under the Constitution. Mr. Shin on February 19th. <한겨레21>“I think it makes no sense that citizens, who are the source of power in a democratic country, cannot speak out,” he said. “Political speech is something stipulated in the Constitution, and I don’t think it can be restricted for any reason.” said.
Second, given that the security guards took away Shin’s hand sign and covered his mouth before subduing his body, what was important to them was not protecting the president’s body, but spreading words that could offend the president. Mr. Shin pointed out, “Isn’t this a cross-section of excessive security focusing more on the president’s security than his own safety?”
Third, the security guards were wearing academic uniforms to hide their identities. Because of this, suspicion arose that the people who once carried Mr. Shin out of the graduation ceremony were fellow students. In addition, as security guards rented out a large number of academic uniforms, graduates experienced great inconvenience as there were not enough academic uniforms to rent. Kim Chan-hwi, co-representative of the Green Justice Party, said, “Just like the plainclothes police officers who hid among students in plain clothes in the 1980s, the bodyguards were disguised in graduation attire and hidden,” and added, “Is it 2024, or the era of military dictatorship in the 1980s?”
Lastly, there is the issue of overly applied criminal laws and arrest requirements. Attorney Park Han-hee of ‘Law to Create Hope,’ a public interest human rights lawyers group, said, “Protection of the president is necessary, but the scope of application of the law should be kept to a minimum, but that is not possible at all.” He added, “Even if we make a hundred concessions and can be quarantined at the event venue, he will be arrested as a red-handed criminal.” In order to do so, there must be a risk of escape or destruction of evidence. Is there any fear of escape for the students who came to the graduation ceremony? “It’s all recorded (on video) anyway, so there’s no fear of evidence being destroyed,” he said.
Excessive security that is hard to understand, ‘blocking the mouth’ and ‘blocking the picket line’
The Ministry of National Security’s ‘excessive security’ is not something that has been happening for a day or two. In June 2023, at the opening ceremony of the Seoul International Book Fair, where President Yoon Seok-yeol’s wife, Kim Geon-hee, gave a congratulatory speech, cultural artists who protested against the blacklisting of the cultural arts community were forcibly evicted. In November of the same year, it became known belatedly that three large buses were mobilized to block those who were holding signs and protesting against budget cuts for R&D in the science and technology industry outside the building where President Yoon was attending.
Excessive security has evolved into ‘planted security’ in 2024. It all started on January 18th when Progressive Party lawmaker Kang Seong-hee (Jeon Ju-eul) shouted at President Yoon, “We need to change the tone of government administration,” at the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province inauguration ceremony, and was blocked. According to a report by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), at the medical reform public livelihood debate held at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do on February 1, Lim Hyun-taek, president of the Korean Association of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, who was trying to convey his opinions on essential medical care to President Yoon, was stopped by bodyguards. He was blocked and kicked out.
Police also show similar behavior. On February 8, members of the LG U+ non-regular worker branch of the public transport union’s Hope Solidarity Headquarters, who were protesting with hand signs in front of the LG U+ office building in Yongsan, Seoul, requested the police to move the protest location as President Yoon’s car was scheduled to pass by. received. The police explained to them that ‘if the pickets are blown away by the wind, security problems may arise.’ Han Sang-hee, a professor at Konkuk University Law School, said, “If our society is trying to become a democratic society, we must change the framework that regards the president as an absolute sanctuary.”
How do I make a quantum jump by cutting the budget?
The secret service of the National Security Agency is calling for resistance. This is because the “Restore R&D budget” message that Shin Min-ki tried to appeal to President Yoon is receiving a positive response not only from fellow KAIST students but also from graduate students across the country. Mr. Shin said, “It is hard to find a research lab that has not suffered damage” due to the R&D budget cut. “At KAIST, due to the budget cut, they are lowering the labor costs of graduate students in the research lab or hiring fewer students at all.” Mr. A, a researcher working at a government-funded research institute in the field of science and technology, also said, “I carry out four or five research projects at the same time, and there is no project that has not had its budget cut. Other researchers have had their budget cut by as much as 80 to 90 percent.”
Long-term research may be disrupted. There may be cases where the scale of research needs to be reduced to fit the reduced budget, but to change the research goal, a separate committee must be convened to evaluate feasibility. In a statement issued on February 19, the National Graduate Student Labor Union said, “It is reasonable to claim that President Yoon’s congratulatory speech at the KAIST graduation ceremony, saying, ‘We will significantly expand the research and development budget to make a quantum jump into a scientific powerhouse,’ was condescending.” (R&D) “Are the president who drew up the budget (4.6 trillion won cut) and the president who gave the congratulatory speech the same president, or are they talking twice at the same time?”
Reporter Seo Hye-mi [email protected]
2024-02-25 15:10:27
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