"President, What Did You Do?" Seoul National University Student Publicly Criticizes President Moon

A critical post about President Moon Jae-in uploaded on the morning of the 3rd on the anonymous Facebook tip page 'Seoul National University Bamboo Forest.' Photo by Seoul National University Bamboo Forest capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] A student enrolled at Seoul National University has attracted attention by posting a critique on SNS about the Moon Jae-in administration's mishandling of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The author accused the Moon administration of failing to respond properly to COVID-19. Currently, the post has thousands of comments.

On the morning of the 3rd at 10 a.m., an anonymous Facebook tip page called 'Seoul National University Bamboo Forest' posted an article starting with "I have been holding back after seeing people criticize President Moon Jae-in over COVID-19."

The author presented 10 questions, the first being, "Did Moon ever say we should share the pain with China, or even say we should overcome this together with North Korea during this crisis?"

They continued, "Did we decide to call it COVID-19 instead of 'Wuhan pneumonia' to avoid belittling China? Did the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) ever try to stop the entry of Chinese nationals?"

President Moon Jae-in is presiding over the Cabinet meeting on the 3rd. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Then, "Or at least, did we send 1 million masks to China for free? Did the Blue House tell the public to stay calm while disinfecting two or three times over?"

The author asked, "Did the Blue House play around eating Jjapaguri (ramen dish) while deaths were occurring? Did they later blame Shincheonji and Daegu after the virus spread?"

At the end of the post, the author sharply stated, "Now, please tell me if President Moon Jae-in has done even one of these things."

Many of the items the author questioned whether President Moon had done were actually implemented by the Blue House or the government. Therefore, it can be seen as a university student using irony to point out the disappointment many citizens feel toward the government's COVID-19 response.

The post has made a significant impact. As of 9 a.m. on the 6th, it recorded 1,002 comments and 492 shares. Netizens responded in the comments with remarks such as "I didn't realize it was irony," "Well done with the indirect criticism," and "Even the criticism has style."