[Editorial] Saying 'no' to religious leaders

After breaking a long silence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade(MOFAT) has finally said `no' to the nation's religious leaders who are planning to invite the Dalai Lama. This daily through its editorial argued that the invitation of the Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize winner and worldly renowned religious leader, must be allowed since his visit is purely of a cultural kind and has nothing to do with a diplomatic issue. We regret about the Ministry's decision to foil the Dalai Lama's visit scheduled on Nov. 16.

Granted, the Ministry would have had many difficulties and conflicting considerations in coming to such a decision, because the Dalai Lama is demanding the independence of Tibet, which is presently China's territory. Naturally, his visit is a very sensitive issue to Beijing. Since we are making big trade surpluses with China, we will have to worry about the possibilities that any strained diplomatic relations may incur economic losses to us. In fact, China is known to have openly expressed its displeasure over the Dalai Lama's scheduled visit.

The Ministry must have been hard put to find a suitable ground to deny the Dalai Lama's visit because he has already visited many countries which maintain diplomatic relations with China. In fact, it was known that the Ministry had a tentative plan to allow his visit, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself was involved in persuading China for the Tibetan religious leader's visit to Korea. It is obvious that the Ministry was torn until very recently by the conflicting considerations between demands of just cause and requirements of practical expediency.

Such efforts and conflicting considerations notwithstanding, the Ministry's final decision must be viewed as a very disappointing one because it forsakes mankind's universal values of human rights and dignity. No cause can possibly justify to bar free associations and meetings among individuals. Even in a hypothetical case to assume that there is a hidden political motive behind the Dalai Lama's visit, no one can bar his visit here so long as there are Koreans who want to invite him.

Moreover, his visit is purely for a cultural purpose, nothing more nor less than that. Over the last several decades, he has given the people moving experiences and occasions by preaching the idea of love, forgiveness, and compassion. Many Koreans who haven't had an opportunity to meet him want to invite him in order to hear his spiritual messages. This can easily be vouched by the fact that the committee to invite the Dalai Lama is composed only of civilians such as religious leaders and civic organizations.

The government's decision to bar his visit, therefore, is an undue infringement on, and interference with, the people's rights and freedom to enjoy their cultural and religious life. In terms of sovereignty of the state, the barring of his visit due to `external' pressures is tantamount to a renunciation of insulting our cultural sovereignty.

Of late, our China diplomacy has consistently been one of those low-profile diplomacy. No matter how great economic stakes are involved or how big power it is for us to deal with, we must show confidence and firmness to stand for a principle if it is something we cannot compromise or make any concession on. The Dalai Lama's foiled visit reflects such a case that we must have been firm and straight-forward to safeguard our inalienable principles. For, the case signifies a threat to mankind's such important universal values as freedom of cultural and personal exchanges.

The Ministry of Education, nonetheless, added a rider to its decision that it will review the case in due course to make the religious leader's visit possible. But, we can hardly give much credence to such statement in view of its meager and negative attitude it has shown on the matter. It behooves the government authorities to be more specific about the due course and the time they consider appropriate for the review.