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Congregation of the Regent House on 5 December 2001

A Congregation of the Regent House was held at 11.45 a.m.
The following titular degree was conferred:

Doctor of Law (honoris causa)

His Excellency KIM DAE-JUNG,

President of the Republic of Korea

The Orator delivered the following speech when presenting the President to the Vice-Chancellor:

'Quinquies quadragenas una minus accepi; ter uirgis caesus sum; semel lapidatus sum; ter naufragium feci; nocte et die in profundo maris fui.' ita Paulus ille Tarsinus opera sua tormentaque exposuit.1 quid si sua hic uir narraret? qui saepe iterumque constrictus, qui bis pulsus in exilium, semel damnatus capitis, ter caede temptatus, nonne uirtute plenissimus uir tam fortis tamque firmus habeatur? 'nec uero,' ut dicit M. Tullius,2 'habere uirtutem satis est quasi artem aliquam nisi utare; uirtus in usu sui tota posita est; usus autem eius est maximus ciuitatis gubernatio.'

qui quidem olim exul hospitio nostro acceptus tum Germanos, bello et suspicione inter se diu diuolsos, rursus in unum conuenire contigit ut ipse perspiceret; cumque magno fuerit ea res documento quid pro suis moliendum putet, cautius agendum lentiusque festinandum constituit ne res liberatione instantiore turbentur. quae quoniam cum potestate deliberat, melius huic euenerit quam ei qui scripsit exul:

Vt dolet amissum luscinia semper amorem,

nostra mouet simili pectora more dolor.

Luciferum testor tenuataque cornua lunae:

uos modo me nostis crimina falsa pati.

hanc animam tecum saltem si, uita, teneres!

fata uetant: maior cui tamen error erat?

nec culpae quicquam nec criminis esse locutus

mollia uerba dabas: sed mihi pectus abit.

iamne mei tam mox oblitus es immemor omnis?

uertere et exaudi: semper amatus amem!

nam hic redit, etiam dissuadentibus amicis redit, plebis uoluntate confisus; quoque constantior auctor eius est iuris quo qui plebi praesint plebi sciscantur, eo magis ciues uti ratione consuescunt, atque ipse illo praemio Nobeliano fit dignior quo ornatus est pacis.

eum praesento uobis qui nomen suum mox commemorandum apud nos permisit, Rei Publicae Coreae Praesidem, Aulae de Clare honoris causa Socium

KIM DAE-JUNG

1 St Paul's second letter to the Corinthians 11.24-25.

2 Cicero de Re Publica 1.2.

'Five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day have I been in the deep.' So wrote St Paul, in demonstration of his endurance. Kim Dae-jung has a personal history which is not very different. Time and again he has been under house arrest; twice he has been in exile, once he was sentenced to death, and three attempts have been made to assassinate him. This is a man of great determination and courage. And yet, as Cicero observed, merely to have courage is not enough: courage is courage only when it exercises itself, and its greatest exercise is the government of a nation.

Kim Dae-jung was in Cambridge, putting some exile to good use, when the re-unification of Germany took place. He saw for himself what problems arise when people long divided by war and suspicion suddenly come together; the experience has been very useful to him in considering how to approach such an event in his own country. Something more cautious has seemed appropriate, to prevent the destabilization that can follow too sudden a change. At least he makes plans from a position of proper authority, a fortune which may have eluded the author of these verses:

In tears I long for my love:

the mountain cuckoo shares my grief.

Only the thinning moon and the stars at first light

know these charges are false.

Would that my soul at least could be with my love.

Who was the transgressor?

Nor blame nor fault accrues, you said.

Words to console. My heart constricts.

Ah, ah, love, have you forgotten already?

Love, turn to me, listen to me. Love me!1

For Kim Dae-jung came back; even when friends were against it, he came back. He puts his trust in the will of the people, and the more persistent an apostle of democracy he is, the better accustomed his fellow-citizens become to it, and the better he himself merits his Nobel Prize for Peace.

I present to you one whose name will soon with his permission be commemorated in Cambridge,

KIM DAE-JUNG

President of the Republic of Korea, Honorary Fellow of Clare Hall

1 This poem, entitled 'Jeong gwa jeong gok,' is by Jeong Seo, a twelfth century official who was wrongly accused of disloyalty to his king. It is not known whether the poem had the desired effect.

His Excellency graciously made a short speech in reply.


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Cambridge University Reporter 12 December 2001
Copyright © 2001 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.