Milestone on the nation's road to democracy
The young Uri party victory in elections is of a revolutionary nature, signaling the end of totalitarianism and the cultural dominance of Confucianism. Election results have confirmed the country's massive opinion against President Roh Moo-hyun's impeachment. They reveal the country's strong collective will to save democracy and institute reforms. The day after victory, Uri leaders asked the former majority to withdraw its impeachment motion.
Seoul (AsiaNews) Many analyst's consider South Korea's Apr. 15 general elections to be a turning point in the nation's history of democracy. The raw figures don't mean anything of the sort unless interpreted in terms of the country's history and culture.
South Korea's road to democracy is quite well known. Born a sovereign nation in 1948, South Korea was ruled by the tight grip of dictatorship until 1987 when the country elected its highest leader for the first time in free democratic elections. Yet even for the next 15 years a country really represented by its people still did not develop. Both regionalism and widespread corruption permitted the old-style regime to continue.
Here the country's culture comes into play. Since the early 15th century to 1910, the Northern and Southern Korean peninsula had been under the absolute dominion of Confucianism. Confucianism had its merits on the cultural level, but was a disaster for the development of the person prior to the rise of democratic systems of government.
The disastrous consequences of Confucianism occurred last century, as the peninsula passed 36 years under Japanese servitude (1910-1945) followed by the tragic spilt of the region into two separate countries. North of the 38th parallel a totalitarian Stalinist regime was set up; to the south a military dictatorship was installed. Both, to a certain degree, are inheritors of Confucian totalitarianism.
In the south an authentic "cultural revolution" ensued in December of 2002 when human rights defender Roh Moo-hyung won the presidential elections. On March 12 2004 the conservative wing of Parliament tried to get rid of Roh by approving an impeachment motion against him. The Confucian syndrome, however, has proven a disaster: 70% of South Koreans say they are strongly against the decision of the parliamentary majority, rejecting old-style Confucianism in favor of a new democratic era.
The counterattack of youth
Before elections the Grand National Party (GNP) laid claim to 133 seats in Parliament while the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) occupied 61 both forming the opposition. The Uri party, which backed Roh, had only 49 seats. Now, after the latest elections, Uri sits upon 151 seats, GNP 121 and MDP has barely won 9.
South Korean citizens punished the arrogance of those MPs who voted for Roh's impeachment. Such parties now feel the consequences for having deposed a democratically elected leader for no serious reason. In this democratic comeback the country's new generation has played a primary role. The images of hundreds of thousands of South Korean youth in red shirts on televised coverage of the World Cup games two years ago were not just an expression of collective enthusiasm. These same young people, this time not clad in red shirts but with lit torches in hand, participated in night rallies in the very same squares to support "their" president.
Chung Dong-young, head of the Uri party, made a huge mistake of asking the country's elderly voters to stay home during elections, though perhaps out of pure political enthusiasm for this new generation of young voters. An unforgivable blooper in Confucian cultural context. Yet in this case it had positive results. Chung Dong-young immediately made up for his error in exemplary fashion by renouncing his candidacy and beginning a hunger strike for the sake of repentance. His sacrifice and self-humility worked, as the Uri party won convincingly.
The new emergence in political participation by the country's youth has thus characterized these latest elections.
By youth we mean not just twenty-year-olds. We also mean those citizens born after the Korean War (1950-1953), those who are not psychologically hindered by their experience of the conflict. This explains their enthusiasm for political and social reform, their willingness to dialog with their northern brothers and sisters and their criticism of American-style protectionism. President Roh Moo-hyun is seen as an icon of their ideal leader. And hence their votes cast to defend him.
Female protagonists
The presence of women in the elections is another element revealing South Korea's major steps made in democratization. The figures are spectacular. In the previous Parliament there were just 16 women. Now women hold 39 seats in legislature. Still others are active members and have top roles in the government's various political parities.
There are two prime examples. The first has been a winner thanks to her qualities and talents: Park Guen-hye, president of the Grand National Party for just over a few months; the second, a loser not by her own fault, is Kim Hee-jung appointed president of the Democratic Millennium Party just before elections.
The strength of the GNP, according to many analysts, is found in the determination and popularity of their new leader. This fact is ambiguous, since Geun-hye is the daughter of deceased former president Park Chung-hee (1960-1979), who was famous not only for having promised to economically rebuild the country but also for having repressed any political opposition.
Even Kim Hee-jung has tried to win back the trust of voters. She has attempted to do so by way of her penitential stance she picked up from Buddhist tradition that of proceeding along the city's roads "with three steps and one genuflection". Here generous attempt has failed on a physical level: after a few days she had to make use of a wheel chair even a political one after having lost elections in her very own electoral college. Kim Hee-jung was the victim of the party's old-school "Confucians".
Balancing political alliances
In an editorial published in The Korean Herald we read: "Voters were intelligent not concede a crushing victory to any party." From the above mentioned election results it would seem that a bipolar system had been set up in Parliament, with the risk of scales being tipped in either direction.
Fortunately, this is not the case, since for the first time a party directly representing the nation's work force has entered Parliament. The Democratic Labor Party (DLP), founded a mere two years ago, won 10 seats in this year's general elections. Analysts believe that the new party can act as a mediator between the two political poles.
"It is important to put a stop to the abnormal situation as soon as possible to prevent it from bearing negative results on the economy's upturn and on foreign investor's confidence," said Prime Minister Goh Kun the day after elections.
The "abnormal situation" the prime minister refers to is that of President Roh's impeachment. Top Uri and DPL party leaders have called for a meeting with the GNP party president in order to find a solution to the political stalemate. "Parliament should withdraw its decision of impeachment and Roh should apologize to the nation for the infraction he committed," proposed labor party head, Kwong Young-il. Park Guen-hye did not find his proposal acceptable, since for her it would mean undue interference in the actions of the country's judiciary powers.
Some newspapers interpreted Gok Kun exhortation as inviting politicians to annul their impeachment motion. The presidential cabinet spokesman rejected this interpretation, saying the invitation was rather likely directed at the Constitutional Court in order to speed up its deliberation process. Many analysts are expecting a verdict in favor of the suspended president, leaning on evidence from the choral consensus against the impeachment. They say the Court's justices cannot help but take this into consideration.
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