Why Was Democracy Short-Lived After April 19 Students’ Uprising?

Choi Chang-seop, third from left, a former Sogang University professor, presents his observations of the April 19 democracy protests of 1960 during an international conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the students’ uprising, in Seoul, last Wednesday. The conference was organized by the Citizens’ Alliance of a Just Society and Clean Politics. From left are Brother Anthony, a professor emeritus of Sogang University; Prof. Glenn Paige from the University of Hawaii; Choi; and Prof. Gottfried-Karl Kindermann from the University of Munich, Germany.

/ Courtesy of Citizens’ Alliance of a Just Society and Clean Politics

By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

College and high school students stood up against the authoritarian Syngman Rhee government on April 19, 1960, after witnessing a series of corruption cases, irregularities and election frauds since Rhee took office.

The revolutionary democracy protests, which took the lives of 186 people and left 1,820 wounded, prompted a change in government from the Liberal Party to the Democratic Party and a constitutional amendment from the presidential system to the parliamentary cabinet system on June 15, 1960.

But the April heroes' courage, sacrifice and youthful energy failed to fully establish democracy as a military coup took place a year after and dictatorship continued until 1979.

Democracy building remained an unfinished business until 1987.

Overseas Korea watchers observed that the movement was limited in transforming Korea into a democracy back then, partly because the rallies were unorganized and the alternative political forces that replaced the previous government proved to be incapable of handling the job

Full-blown democracy did not arrive in the nation until 27 years later when civic group activists, labor unionists and the public joined hands in nationwide demonstrations in 1987, which led to the June 29 Declaration by the then ruling party leader Roh Tae-woo.

Reading the prepared statement, Roh pledged to scrap the initial plan for an indirect presidential election, and vowed to hold an election where people would be allowed to select their leader through direct voting.

Asked why democracy was short-lived after the April 19 movement, Prof. Gottfried-Karl Kindermann of the University of Munich, Germany, told The Korea Times that the student activists instigating the uprising were not organized and that they were unable to rule the nation.

"But they were able to provide an opportunity for Chang Myon and other democrats so that they could get a new start. Unfortunately the new group failed to manage the state effectively," he observed.

"No other forces, except the military, remained."

April Heroes

Prof. Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul explained that Korea has a strong history of students participating in the political process and that the tradition dates back to the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910).

Young students attending Sungkyukwan, a Joseon version of a national university, were active in politics and they launched a demonstration-like protest even back then, he said.

According to Lankov, the role of students in the political process reached a peak during the Japanese colonial period as many high school and college students united to fight for independence.

The Russian professor noted that the tradition continued in the modern era and the students playing leading roles in the April 19 movement is a clear example.

The Times of London ran a story on the student-led protests in Korea on April 20, 1960, a day after the revolutionary event.

"A feature of all demonstrations, including those taking place today, is the dominant part played by students and schoolboys shouting slogans and undismayed by police bullets," the report said.

Regarding the question of why students, not activists, turn up to protest the government, political scientists here share the view that students were the only intellectuals who were aware of how democracy worked and what freedom would mean to individuals back then.

Given that labor unions were not organized and civic group activists were hard to find, college students were the only ones left who were able to stand up against the authoritarian regime 50 years ago, they said.

Western Education

Kindermann and Prof. Glenn Paige of Hawaii University agreed that the role of Western education was a major driving force for the bottom-up democracy movement.

The three scholars -- Kindermann, Paige and Lankov -- presented their recollections and evaluations of the movement at the International Conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the April Democratic Revolution organized by the Citizens' Alliance of a Just Society and Clean Politics held last Wednesday in Seoul.

Kindermann called the heroes of the April democratic revolution - the university and high school students -- "the first generation" that was taught Western democracy.

"These students were told about democracy at school and university. Through this education, they came to have the eyes with which they were able to see the discrepancy between the theory and the reality facing them," the political scientist said.

"(Despite widespread corruption and irregularities under the Syngman Rhee administration), nobody does anything. So the students thought that they will do it and that they will fight."

Kindermann has followed Korea for the past 60 years after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950.

He was working with the U.N. Security Council as a staffer when the war broke out.
Prof. Paige concurred with the German scholar about the role of education in the democracy movement.

"Those students were learning about the ideals of democracy. Universities and schools are the places for thinking. It's normal that thinking people were more critical," he told The Korea Times.

"Labor unions were just working hard. Farmers were working hard. Everyone just had to work hard under the terrible conditions only 10 years after the outbreak of the Korean War."

Paige is a Korean War veteran-turned-political scientist who has watched closely the ups and downs of Korea over the past six decades.

He was in Korea from 1959 to 1961 as a member of the University of Minnesota advisory group to help establish the new Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University under the leadership of Dean Shin Tae-hwan.

Accepting the mission, Paige became one of the few foreign witnesses when the nation was at the center of international attention because of the democracy movement initiated by the students.

Recollections

"Throughout the afternoon of Monday, April 18, about 500 Korea University students engaged in a sit-down demonstration in the street in front of the National Assembly," Paige recalled.

Those students sang patriotic anthems and school songs and called for democracy and the release of students arrested by the police following the bloody repression of the March 15 election protests in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, he continued.

A Seoul National University medical school student who was shot in the leg during the march to the presidential residence on April 19 was quoted by Paige as saying that he was prepared to die if that was what it would take for him to achieve democracy here.

"You and I have the same idea about democracy, then why do you shot at us?" the student shouted at the police who shot the student activists as they marched toward the presidential residence.

Students were determined to rise up against the Rhee government, which had committed election fraud so that Rhee could stay in power longer.

A variety of election irregularities such as proxy voting and violating the secret ballot rule were reported nationwide during the March 15 presidential election.

Corruption had been widespread leading up to the elections. Offering cash to government officials in return for public office was not uncommon.

This kind of depravity was taking place when the majority of the general public was struggling to make ends meet.

An editorial of the Hankook Ilbo, a sister paper of The Korea Times, spoke of the miserable circumstances back then, "the streets were full of the unemployed and beggars while farmers and laborers suffered from starvation and privation."

Prof. Paige suggested that people should remember all those who were killed, their grieving families and the survivors today who bear the scars.

He noted that the police who inevitably suffered from traumatic memories and the regret of killing should also be considered.