Kim Young-sam was no doubt a towering figure in Korean politics. Most of all, the man, along with Kim Dae-jung, was a crusader for the nation’s pro-democracy movement.

Like any other leader, Kim Young-sam, who passed away at the age of 87 Sunday, did both good things and bad things, but what he did for democracy alone more than makes up for any shortcomings he had.

Kim risked his life by holding a hunger strike for 23 days in protest against the Chun Doo-hwan regime, underwent house arrests and forfeited his parliamentary membership. He never gave in to oppression and lifted the torch for the nation’s arduous march for democracy.

His crowning moment came in 1992 when he won the presidential election, which ended decades of rule by presidents with military backgrounds that started with Park Chung-hee in 1960 and lasted through the Roh Tae-woo administration. He thus proudly called his government the “civilian administration.”

After moving into the Blue House — his dream since middle school — Kim set out on bold reforms aimed at eradicating remnants of the successive authoritarian regimes.

Calling it a project to “right the wrongs of history,” Kim ordered the legislation of a special law to jail Chun and Roh for masterminding the 1979 coup that put the military strongmen in power.

The indictment of the two former presidents, along with Kim’s surprise purge of members of a private fraternity of military officers and generals — of which Chun and Roh were key members — ended any chance of the military interfering with politics, let alone taking power.

Kim demonstrated the same resoluteness in regards to the nation’s colonial past by demolishing the building that housed the Japanese Governor-General’s Office in Seoul.

Kim should be credited with curbing corruption and making society a little more transparent. One of the first things he did as president was declare that he would not receive any illegal political funds.

This put an end to the shameful practice of presidents pocketing huge sums of illegal political funds from chaebol tycoons — even from within the Blue House office.

Kim’s crusade against corruption peaked when he banned false and borrowed names in financial transactions and enforced the public registration and disclosure of assets held by senior public servants and elected officials.

As a man who entered politics by winning a parliamentary election at the record young age of 26 — a record that still stands — Kim had both many opponents and many detractors.

They point out that Kim should not have joined forces with Roh’s ruling party and a minor opposition party led by Kim Jong-pil, Park’s relative and longtime associate, in 1990. Thr result is known: the three-way merger turned to be the key to Kim’s election victory that led to the end of military rule.

Elsewhere, one might agree that it would have been better if Kim had made sure his younger son and his associates and aides stayed as far from the lure of dirty money as he had. It would also have been better if he had managed the economy better so that the nation could have avoided the devastating financial crisis in the last year of his presidency.

Nevertheless, we owe much of what we now take for granted to the man, who was often referred to as “YS” after the initials of his given name.

YS deserves a tribute for his achievements, not least democratization and reforms.