As preliminary candidates for Daegu mayor have recently been making successive candidacy announcements in front of the ‘Park Chung-hee statue’ at Dongdaegu Station, civic groups have come forward with criticism.

On the 3rd, the ‘Pan-Citizens Coalition Against the Project to Idolize Park Chung-hee’, a coalition of Daegu civic groups, stated that preliminary candidates for Daegu mayor from the People Power Party are expressing their intention to run in front of the Park Chung-hee statue, saying they will inherit his so-called ‘spirit of industrialization’.

It continued that he was the ringleader of a military coup who destroyed the constitutional order and prolonged military dictatorship, as well as an explicit pro-Japanese and anti-national collaborator, adding that glorifying such a figure in the name of industrialization and continuing to announce candidacies in front of the statue of a dictator that ought to be removed is a serious challenge to democracy and an insult to Daegu citizens.

Earlier, People Power Party lawmaker Joo Ho-young held a press conference on the 25th of last month in front of the statue of former President Park Chung-hee and officially declared his bid for Daegu mayor. Former Dong-gu district chief Lee Jae-man also announced his intention to run for Daegu mayor near the statue on the 16th of last month.

The coalition holds the view that the Park Chung-hee statue is not a symbol of the industrialization of Daegu but merely a symbol of dictatorship representing the destruction of the constitutional order and the violation of human rights.

The civic group also emphasized that this is a moment facing the historical tasks of restoring democracy, eradicating insurrectionist forces, and carrying out major social reform in the aftermath of the illegal martial law of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

The coalition stated that despite this current trend, if there are still attempts, intoxicated with nostalgia for military dictatorship, to shield insurrectionist forces and turn Daegu back into an island of hardline conservatism, this can never be tolerated, and that declarations of candidacy in front of the statue are not a simple political choice but an act that reveals what view of history and what understanding of democracy one holds.

Finally, the group argued that the People Power Party preliminary candidates for Daegu mayor must pledge to remove the Park Chung-hee statue, declare a break with insurrectionist forces, and express a stance to build a new Daegu where democracy, human rights, and social justice begin anew, adding that the local elections this year must be an advance in new democracy, not a return to the past era of dictatorship.