A mayoral race in Seoul

Outsider in

A blow for mainstream parties, of whatever hue

Oct 29th 2011 | SEOUL | from the print edition

THE election for mayor of Seoul on October 26th produced an upset. The self-styled “citizens’ candidate”, Park Won-soon, an anti-establishment independent, trounced the articulate and glamorous legislator representing the country’s ruling conservative party. His fans call it a remarkable victory for people power.

Mr Park is a human-rights lawyer who came of age opposing South Korea’s military dictatorship. Later he became known for promoting a chain of thrift shops for the poor. Two months ago he was the rank outsider in the mayoral race. In the event, he handily beat his opponent with 53% of the votes to Na Kyung-won’s 46%. The campaigning was lively, and often cruel. Supporters traded accusations over Mr Park’s academic record and the amount Ms Na spends on skin treatments.

But the stakes were high. Nearly half of South Korea’s population lives in or around Seoul, and the mayoral race is by far the most important non-national election. The mayor is often considered future presidential material: the current president, Lee Myung-bak, a former Seoul chief, is a case in point. Mr Park’s victory was in part a reflection of Mr Lee’s falling popularity at a time of economic worries and scandals enmeshing his aides. It has also blown open the race to replace Mr Lee in the presidential election in just over a year.

Both mayoral candidates tapped into popular unease at rising living costs and weak job security, despite good economic growth and impressive corporate profits. Both spurned the kinds of elaborate construction projects favoured by previous mayors. But Mr Park was more convincing in portraying himself as the capital’s “first welfare mayor” in a country with only threadbare social-safety nets.

His victory, while a blow to the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), does the main opposition no favours. The new mayor does not seem interested in aligning himself with the left-of-centre Democratic Party. Its mayoral candidate dropped out in order to let Mr Park take the progressives’ ticket. The Democratic Party, which trails the GNP in national polls, has failed to capitalise on the president’s unpopularity.

Eyes will now turn to the presidential election. The Democratic Party has its work cut out coming up with a candidate around whom progressives can coalesce. The GNP’s presumed candidate has star value. She is Park Geun-hye, daughter of South Korea’s former strongman, Park Chung-hee. (The new Seoul mayor was kicked out of university in the 1970s for demonstrating against Park’s dictatorship.) Ms Park threw her backing behind Ms Na, but that did not seem to do much. Ms Park has a ready-made support base among older, conservative voters. But having strongly backed the losing candidate in Seoul, she has clearly been dealt a blow.

The biggest winner of the Seoul race may prove to be a man who has not formally entered politics at all. Ahn Chul-soo is a 49-year-old entrepreneur and academic, founder of a notable software firm in a country dominated by overweening conglomerates. When he was mooted as a potential mayoral candidate for Seoul, he shot up in polls to become the firm favourite. In the event, he did not run, but his backing was a crucial factor in Mr Park’s victory. Now, expect lots of breathless speculation: about whether Mr Ahn will challenge Ms Park; and about whether he can overturn national politics as his protégé did in Seoul this week.

from the print edition | Asia

Outsider in

Oct 31st 2011, 03:02

South Korea is a special country exercising with few notion of party-politics. Also, this country is unique while discussing the Asian democracy because the party’s role of friends or foes with each other always mixes together.

The unique phenomenan is due to how South Korea started herself. Syngman Rhee, who once wrote suggestion letter to the truly ruler Empress Myung-sung of Lee’s Chosen when he was just a youth, established his regime very earlily with the help of Theodore Roosevelt before Japan's Ito Hirobumi swallowed Korean penisula in 1910 and some Korean even including death wood-box bussinessman. After the protest of students against Rhee, Park Chung-hee, an English teacher and joining in military in Korean War, ended the tumultuous situation and then created the miracle of Han-river, letting Samsung and LG be stronger. And after Park’s death because of an assassination of spy chief and the reign of a series of military leader, Kim Young-Sam became the first real democratic President. From this time, the party-politics which help the structure be more stable existing can spread throught the whole country.

The other reason why South Korea has a lot of differences from other democracy in the world is Korean nationalism, which sometimes annoys neighbors like Japan, China (and Taiwan). For example, Seoul once claimed that the soybean milk, dragon boat festival and Chinese herbal medicine were also Korean cultures in addition to sauce cabbage. Besides, the Korean Cool, accomanying the flourishing “Sa-la-ne-i”(meaning decent “I love you”), is walking around in Asian countries. Numerous Korean idols, drama and pop songs are famous for individual style, such as Pei Yong-Yang (once seen as the most handsome man in Asia), Song Hye-Kyo (the drama queen in South Korea), Kim Si-Sam(the daughter of Park Chung-hee) as well as Gu Hye-Seon (the most famous student blogger in South Korea).

Interestingly, these stylish drama actors and actresses can reflect South Korean politics easy to change or reshape. Many political figures in South Korea often experiences the serious rise and fall in recent 20 years from local to central government. It usually occurs to lose the support from public when one omits just one word or pose in front of the media’s camera.

Just about a week ago, President Lee Myung-Bak happily signed the free trade agreement (FTA) with American President Barack Obama (who also signed FTA with Panama and Columbia at the same time), saying South Korea would advance on various sides and promote the ability of competition in Asia with his centralised Seoul government. Last Friday, thousands of people gathered in front of National Assembly building calling for the government to cancel the deal or renegotiate with the US government because they thought FTA would help few big company instead of the vast majority of people. Lee Myung-Bak intends to put international policy into advance rather than take care of local people. Indeed, Lee Myung-Bak strives for strengthen the neighbor’s relation in recent days. In this week, China’s next prime minister Li Ke-Qiang will visit Seoul for the nuclear crisis of northern-east Asia shortly after last week Li met Kim Jeon-Yi in Pyongyang (The next China’s President Xi Jin-Ping once met Lee Myung-Bak in Beijing in 2008’s Chinese Lunar Festival). However, this may lead Lee to lose the seat of 2012’s president. Maybe the ability and experience in conglomerate are not equal to the magnetic force of appealing to people while voting.

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