“I believe that in a country where artists, designers,
cartoonists and satirists have been censored, arrested
and charged in court for their art, it is important that
this vital form of artistic expression – parody and satire
as a form of political protest – continues to be practised
and defended at all costs,” Fahmi told BenarNews.
In South Korea, the struggle between artists and
governments – which has involved bans, detentions
and even jail terms – culminated in cataclysmic change
recently. The revelation that the presidential office kept
a blacklist banning 9,000 artists from state funding was
a key scandal that led to the downfall of President Park
Geun-hye, who was ousted in March, after months of
protests involving hundreds of thousands of people.
The blacklist caused deep reverberations in Korean
society, particularly because it evoked memories
of Park’s father, who had ruled the country with an
iron fist. Hong believes that Park upheld her father’s
ideology, saying, “She returned Korean society to
50 years ago.” He said many artists joined the large
protests in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square to criticise
a government that “suppresses the thoughts of people.”
“All artists want freedom to express themselves,”
says Hong. But most “pursue freedom of form only”
rather than “social freedom”. Hong argues that freedom
should precede nationhood, which he sees as “a means
of suppressing people’s thoughts”. He also believes that
a “new power structure” will emerge in this cyber era,
which artists will have to guard against. “It is an age
when artists need more intuition and sensitivity.”
Being a rabbit in the submarine of society was
“very difficult” at first, Hong says. Yet, this former
Amnesty International prisoner of conscience now feels
vindicated with the recent victory of the people. agbottom left South Korea’s
ruling party threatened to
sue the left-wing artist Hong
Sung-dam, who painted
the former president Park
Geun-hye giving birth to her
father, former dictator Park
Chung-hee, likening the work
to “Nazi propaganda”
below Zunar’s cartoon
parodying the US$17 million
ring that the Malaysian
prime minister’s wife,
Rosmah, allegedly boughtIMAGE © ZUNARMANGAI BALASEGARAM is a journalist and health
specialist based in Kuala Lumpur who has worked for
The Star, the BBC, and the World Health Organization.
Thanks goes to Jan Sunyoung Wisniewski for the
Korean translation.cover story