President Yoon Seok Yeol's seemingly "unmindful" behavior continues. The promises of creating a better government are not being kept, and despite being in power for over a year, there is a constant evasion of responsibility by blaming "the previous administration." On "reliance on foreign powers- dependency on others," the fate of the nation seem entrusted to Japan and the United States, and their leaders. After gaining power, Korea's independence fighters were insulted as communists, and there were even discussions raised about removing the statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin. The administration seems to turn a blind eye to the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima, which directly impacts the lives of the public, create a risk of war on the Korean Peninsula, and looks on as national debt increases. All in all, the people's anger grows day by day amid the suffering.

Watching the process of conducting document collection on JTBC and Newstapa, the sad history of "press oppression" is being revived. With the emergence of the "Broadcasting and Communications Commission," various retaliatory measures against the press are put into practice. The ruling party has even referred to a certain media outlet as "traitorous to the nation" and "deserving of the death penalty." This presents a dramatic example of how the current government simultaneously suppresses "freedom" while proclaiming "freedom." The factions aligning with the current government are portrayed as "proponents of freedom and democracy," while those composing the opposition are labeled as "communist totalitarian" forces that are suppressed and oppressed critically. In discordance with North Korea, a communist dictatorship that mobilizes and exploits its people as slaves and tools, in South Korea at least we have the confidence that we can fully enjoy the fundamental rights guaranteed by democracy.

Starting from this point, today, all we have is the instinctual will to support ourselves amidst the exhaustion of despair, in our desensitized and chaotic circumstances. Couples are without children, and youth lack jobs and South Korea as a nation sees safety is lacking and a bleak looking future. Tragedies such as the Oct. 29 Itaewon crowd crush disaster, the Osong underpass flood and the tragic death of Marine Corporal Chae Su-geun while following unsound orders, the nation not only fails to protect its citizens but intimidates them, leaving each person to fend for themselves. The distrust in one's own people created people without any hope for future and thus so-called "don't ask"crimes have snowballed. Even when one shouts, nobody in the current government seems to know how to sympathize or when a citizen appeals with endless tears nobody from government seems willing to respond or take action.

This is the state of our homeland and our people that has been created during the past one year and four months by an infinitely irresponsible authority. This is the reality produced by the so-called Yoon Seok Yeol government. Despite surpassing North Korea and its regime a long time ago, and while the world is enthusiastic about K-culture, why is it that as time goes on, our society seems to be regressing and falling into a pit? Despite our diligent and highly capable citizens striving each day on this beautiful land, what are the dreams of ruling authorities that prevent them from leading our nation forward in a different way?

Today is the day when the ones who maintain power and position by plunging into corruption to push the citizens into poverty, promoting distrust, enforcing oppression and division will be eliminated. Tolerance to the authority is not a virtue but the assassination of democracy. If we do not stand up and fight against the irrationality of the current government, to whom will lay blame while walking to the gallows. Only the exercise of wise authority can revive the nation in its current lifeless state. As citizens, now we need to not "compromise with injustice."

Furthermore, is the current government truly embodying democracy in which the people can participate? Isn't it bullying the public, coercing and pushing them in sacrifice? We question whether they have sought and obtained sufficient and necessary understanding from the sovereign, and whether they are conducting governance that has gained national consensus. The "tyranny over the people" that the citizens cannot accept is due to a rebellion against the real sovereign, the people. We are about to leave behind the historically gloomy year of 2023, so please stop the unreasonable investigations by the prosecution into the opposition parties and their leaders for the sake of dividing the citizenry and give us back some hope for the upcoming year of 2024.

Jeon Su-mi (sumijeon@ssu.ac.kr), an attorney, is an invited professor at the Soongsil Institute for Peace and Unification. She was a member of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation.