2014-01-9
After the 40 year old Mr. Lee Nam-jong set himself on fire
with the words "I demand a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate
the influence of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) on the 2012
presidential elections and the resignation of President Park Geun-Hye" and
jumped off a bridge in front of the Seoul Central Station on December 31st2013, I tried to understand the phenomenon of immolation as a political form of
protest. [Source:오마이뉴스]
The first prominent incident of this kind occurred in 1963
when the Vietnamese Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire to protest against the
persecution of Buddhists by the Ngo Dinh Diem government in South Vietnam. In
Korea, the sewer Chun Tae-Il immolated himself on November 13th 1970
in order to draw attention to the situation of the (mainly female) workers, who
made the rapid economic growth of the country possible by their own suffering
under worst working conditions. On April 29th 1990 Sunghee Park draw attention to the political situation by his
self-immolation and in 1991 the death of a student caused by the police
triggered a wave of self-immolations to demonstrate against the government of
President Rho Tae-woo. In 2007 Heo Se-uk demonstrated against the free trade
agreement with the United States by immolating himself and in 2010 the Buddhist
monk Moonsu demanded to stop corruption and the Four Rivers Project from the
Lee Myun - Bak government. [Source: Wikipedia]
But why does someone immolate him or herself?
Self-immolation is the most painful way to commit suicide
and is therefore perceived as a heroic sacrifice. 75% of all self-immolations
happen in India, Vietnam and South Korea. Unlike suicide bombers the intent is
not to cause material destruction or the injury of others. Similar to a hunger
strike, the self-inflicted suffering serves as a form of protest, where the own
death is not necessarily intended, but deliberately taken into account. The crucial
difference, however, is the fact that the chances of survival of
self-immolation do hardly exceed 30%, while a hunger strike only very rarely
ends fatal. The sacrifice of the own life is meant to support a protest
movement, to add more weight to its demands and to strengthen the protestors by
providing a reason to maintain the movement honouring those who are perceived
as martyrs. [Source: Michael Biggs, Department
of Sociology, University of Oxford]
