A netizen claiming to be a discharged soldier has shared his opinion about BTS should be exempted from military service.
On November 26, a netizen claiming to be a discharged soldier shared his views on BTS’s military exemption.
This person gave 6 reasons to want the National Assembly to expand the military service exemption law to include famous cultural artists like BTS.
1. The current Military Service Exemption Act was established in 1973. Back then, raising the status and dignity of the nation was of greater importance in our society and there were social standards. different from what we have now.
This naturally leads to the need to update the appropriate standards for 2021.
Example: Current law allows winners of first or second prizes at the “Seoul International Dance Competition”, which includes many other “international” competitions. There are people who are exempt from mandatory military service but the public really doesn’t know who they are or what they did.
2. Some might argue that for the sake of fairness, such waivers should be dropped.
However, I oppose this position because the ulterior motive of the law is to protect the leakage of talent to other countries due to mandatory obligations.
Anyone would question what the winners did to elevate the nation by winning a number of “international” competitions but no one questioned the Olympic medalists about that
What I’m saying is that the standard should be reset to reflect the new social consensus.
3. The rule is not absolute. We collectively enacted that law in the first place, so why can’t we just amend the existing law?
4. BTS has done a lot to raise awareness of Korean culture and pop culture is the number one ingredient influencing the nation’s image according to a survey among foreigners in 2019.
While 38.2% replied that popular culture affects Korea’s image, only 3.1% answered sports and 1.5% answered pure art.
I see here that there is a prejudice against an idol without much consideration of how that person affects the national status and this has created certain obstacles in discussions. debate in Parliament.
5. Fans may feel that other management companies are taking advantage of BTS’s influence to call for an exemption from their obligations. But this is only half true.
Do you think other agencies are lobbying for BTS’s exemption from obligations independently?
Big Hit cannot publicly announce that they are supporting this amendment as it may discredit BTS’s response that they will fulfill their obligations when called.
6. Of course, there are some barriers to actually passing the amendment. Older generations may be prejudiced against idols and most men are indifferent to the rights to discharge from duty.
I also see the Department of Defense has cited the lack of soldiers as one of the current limitations but I think this is ridiculous.
Extending military service exemptions to a small number of famous artists is not the root cause of the current decline in conscripts.
This situation is caused by a low birth rate and must be addressed by another government policy.
What do you think?
