The coming Friday, April 22, marks the first “Saemaul Day” since the National Assembly passed a bill in February to commemorate the anniversary of former President Park Chung-hee’s launching of Saemaul Undong or the New Community Movement in 1970. But actual celebrations will be deferred to May as related authorities feared misunderstanding about their motivation in connection with the April 27 by-elections.
The Saemaul Day bill was approved with bipartisan support with only five votes against it from the Democratic Labor Party. But skeptics express suspicion that the administration might be promoting commemoration of the decades-old rural revival movement in an attempt to boost public support for the on-going four river development project which also has the aim of improving the overall quality of living in addition to economic benefits.
Regardless of political arguments, the Saemaul Movement deserves recognition in the nation’s modern history as having produced a great momentum for social and economic transformation in the 1970s. Some compare it with the impact of the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea-Japan combined, but the nationwide innovation drive personally pushed by Park Chung-hee until his death in 1979 had broader effects on the national psyche.
Escaping poverty through industriousness, self-help and community-level cooperation was the goal shared by the rural populace of 2.5 million households in 35,000 natural villages. The initial campaign to improve the living environment progressed to various income-boosting projects. By the mid-1970s, the average rural income caught up with urban households’ and South Korea overtook North Korea in per capita GNP. Democratic training spread from the grassroots level as villagers elected their leaders and joined in the discussion of community problems.
The Saemaul flag still flutters at community centers in the provinces although Saemaul Undong has become a thing of the past. Now we live in democracy and have local autonomy, but everyone needs to remember, not just on Saemaul Day, that the passion of rural improvement movement of the 1970s helped establish the foundations for what Koreans enjoy today.
