Korea's
choice: Dirty deals, snappy
slogans By Donald Kirk
SOUL - Caravans of limousines and sound
trucks are careening through the streets of the
capital and cities and towns throughout the
country blaring out the virtues of a dozen
candidates for president. Schoolgirls form
colorful choruses on the fringes of rallies,
shouting slogans and singing campaign songs,
Buddhist monks bang on wooden drums, and
television comedians cavort and joke on portable
stages as the candidates themselves dance along to
the rhythm of the moment.
It's an orgy of
democracy in action that won't stop until December
19
when voters decide on the candidate to succeed
President Roh Moo-hyun, who can't run for a second
five-year term under the constitution promulgated
in June 1987 after decades of near-dictatorial
rule. The election is significant as a test of the
popularity of a left-leaning leadership that has
relentlessly pursued reconciliation with North
Korea ever since Roh's predecessor, the firebrand
Kim Dae-jung, won by an eyelash in December 1997
at the height of the economic crisis that forced
South Korea to beg the International Monetary Fund
for a US$58 billion bailout plan.
Against
a backdrop of campaign debate over the economy and
North Korea, however, the issue of corruption
hangs over the campaign as a glowering reminder of
the forces behind Korea's rise as an economic
power and their influence over every corner of
society.
On the same day that the
candidates formally opened their campaigns, Roh
had to deny having accepted any bribes while
promising not to veto a bill calling for
investigation of Samsung companies through which
the group's former lawyer accuses top executives
of channeling slush funds for bribes. Meanwhile,
Lee Myung-bak, the front-running conservative who
calls Roh a "leftist" and blames him for economic
ills, waits anxiously as prosecutors investigate a
jailed businessman who says that Lee was linked to
investment funds implicated in bribery and
embezzlement.
Accustomed though Koreans
may be to allegations of bribery in high places,
the coincidence of campaigning and investigations
definitely adds a fission of excitement that might
otherwise be missing both in the legal cases and
on the campaign trail. The question is whether the
investigations will have some unforeseen effect on
an election in which the winner will be lucky to
get 40% of the votes.
"All eyes are on the
case of Kim Kyoung-joon, the investment fund
manager who was extradited from the US to face
fraud and embezzlement charges in Korea," writes
conservative lawyer Kim Sang-chul. "The fear is
that the investigation may determine the outcome
of the election. The essential issue in this
year's presidential election is whether the
leftist political power will come to an end or
continue in power."
The worst nightmare of
conservatives is that Chung Dong-young, the
candidate of the United New Democratic Party, with
a popularity rating of less than 20%, will zoom up
in the polls while conservative votes that would
have gone to Lee Myung-bak, the candidate of the
Grand National Party (GNP), drift over to Lee
Hoi-chang, the losing GNP candidate in the 1997
and 2002 elections, now running as an independent.
Chung, a former TV anchorman who served as
Roh's unification minister, is dedicating his
campaign in part to his record in working for
North-South Korean rapprochement and his pledge to
follow through on wide-ranging agreements reached
between Roh and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il
at their summit in Pyongyang in October.
That message, however, has only limited
appeal. Support for North-South rapprochement was
not enough to stop the factional infighting that
tore apart the Uri Party that lofted Roh to the
presidency five years ago. Chung's United New
Democratic Party is a hastily contrived
organization, formed just a few months ago from
quarreling elements of the Uri Party as well as
the remnants of Kim Dae-jung's old Millennium
Democratic Party. Its sole purpose was to be able
to field a single candidate to oppose Lee
Myung-bak (M B Lee), whose popularity in the polls
appeared unbeatable.
A resurgence of
conservatism, however, is working against M B Lee
at a time when he most needs loyalist support to
keep his candidacy from eroding during the
investigation of his links to suspect investment
funds.
The independent Lee Hoi-chang (H C
Lee), besides counting on a record for integrity
as a former supreme court justice, is playing on
right-wing sentiment, campaigning as a "true
conservative" with a "clean record". H C Lee,
still well behind M B Lee in the polls, has no
trouble blaming North Korea's nuclear program on
"the ambiguous stance" of the current government,
that he accuses of having coddled North Korea's
nuclear ambitions by its willingness to
compromise. H C Lee's conservative appeal has
forced M B Lee and the GNP to pull back from what
had appeared as a carefully moderate view on North
Korea.
The GNP has had to mute its
advocacy of a "middle way" in dealing with North
Korea, preferring not to offend deeply
conservative members to whom H C Lee still offers
the best hope, despite his two previous losing
runs at the presidency. Having offered conditional
support for moves toward reconciliation, M B Lee
now says he doesn't exactly support the outlook of
his own party on North Korea and will demand North
Korea give up its nuclear weapons program as a
prerequisite for aid, but he prefers to talk
mostly about economic reform.
Following
both these conservatives as they campaign through
this frantically capitalist capital, one might get
the impression that South Korea is in the midst of
a severe economic slump rather than growing
economically at a rate of several percent a year.
Both of them promise economic reforms that they
say will elevate employment among young people
angered over the difficulties of finding jobs
commensurate with their education levels, and both
say the government is at fault for socialist
policies that discouraged the business groups or
chaebol that form the backbone of the
Korean economy.
M B Lee, on the basis of
his incredible rise as a young man to the
chairmanship of Hyundai Engineering and
Construction in the 1970s, is more far more
specific than H C Lee about what he will do. At
the heart of his economic program lies what he
sees as the need to loosen restraints that keep
the chaebol from controlling banks or
holding more than limited stakes in other
companies in their groups.
The scandals
surrounding both the Samsung group and his own
financial dealings, however, may curb any appetite
for a reversal of government policies that many
critics believe give the chaebol
overweening power to the detriment of small and
medium enterprise, not to mention millions of
people on corporate payrolls. M B Lee's
supporters shrug off charges of his alleged
financial misdeeds. A common refrain is that "they
won't make any difference" to voters. People who
offer that type of comment are quick to add,
however, that "no one knows what will happen".
The Samsung case has yet to touch any of
the candidates directly but fosters
anti-chaebol sentiment. "The business
community is worried," says a government finance
official. "This is kind of a pity for us, but we
think we will get over this."
While
conservatives are mired in explaining away the
scandals, Chung has no trouble stressing the need
to "move forward" and build on the record of
reconciliation with North Korea. His campaign
slogan, "Happy Family", suggests an aversion to
the power of the chaebol that lord it over
the economy.
At one rally, enthusiasts
were seen holding placards saying "Free Hugs", as
Chung hugged a succession of middle-aged women who
rose to join him on stage. He might have been
saying Koreans should embrace North Korea too
while rejecting the angry talk of the
conservatives who still reign supreme in Korean
society.
Journalist Donald Kirk
has been covering Korea - and the confrontation of
forces in Northeast Asia - for more than 30
years.
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