What six hours in South Korea say about democracy and ‘revenge politics’
South Korea should be on American minds after the events of the past 48 hours. One can but hope Donald Trump was watching television as news flashes revealed two key lessons from South Korea, Asia’s fourth largest economy:
- Joe Biden was right when his administration declared South Korea a model of democracy.
- The politics of revenge can ultimately consume the rituals and practice of democracy.
Both points are important for the US as Mr Trump prepares to return to its helm. For the moment, best to examine them in relation only to South Korea.
Over a mere six hours, South Korea went from democratic crisis to a remarkably speedy, people-led movement to resist authoritarian control. The startling decision by South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol to declare martial law in a late-night broadcast to the nation was quickly reversed.
Meanwhile, it drew legislators to parliament to resist the president’s fiat.
It led thousands of protesters to gather outside the National Assembly, chanting, “End martial law!”
It pushed a trade union with more than a million members to declare an “indefinite general strike”.
It’s hard to think of a better example of a people prizing their democratic rights so much they brave the freezing cold to stand on the streets with no particular leader, organising force or plan other than stubborn defiance of a president’s power grab.
So yes, Joe Biden was right when his administration declared South Korea a model of democracy.
Revenge politics is a more troubling subject by far. Experts on South Korea note that of the seven presidents elected since 1987, three have served prison sentences, while another died by suicide during an investigation for bribery.
Before winning election as president, Mr Yoon himself was the chief prosecutor in the case of former conservative president Park Geun-hye. It’s not clear if the likely impeachment of President Yoon will mark the end of increasingly partisan attempts to prosecute past South Korean leaders. That these have divided South Korea is clear. Over the past half-century of South Korea’s “model” democracy (to return to the formulation of the Biden administration) its political divisions have only deepened as a result of revenge politics. So much so that when a leader is legitimately prosecuted it begins to feel like persecution. (Troubling echoes elsewhere…)
In South Korea, it’s all been exacerbated by rhetoric that turns politics into a war by any means. Mr Yoon’s decision when announcing martial law to portray the opposition as “pro-North, anti-state forces” made domestic politicians into a foreign enemy. (Again, troubling echoes are heard elsewhere…)
But South Koreans didn’t buy it. Elsewhere, who knows?
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
