Dictator's daughter seeks the Blue
House By Steven Borowiec
South Korea's most popular politician,
Park Geun-hye, announced on July 10 that she will
run for the country's presidency in December's
national election, when she could become Northeast
Asia's first female head of state. If she does
make it to the president's office, no one is sure
what kind of leader she'd be, and the fact of her
gender isn't having the type of political echoes
one might expect.
In her announcement
speech, Park made the kind of fluffy political
promises expected of someone in her position. She
thanked supporters for giving her the strength to
conquer life's challenges. "I was able to overcome
all difficulties because of your support," she
told the crowd.
She is the daughter of
former South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee and
took on the duties of first lady at age 21 when
her mother was killed in an assassination attempt
on her father, who was
murdered by an associate
five years later, in 1979.
Tuesday's
announcement came as no surprise - Park has long
been believed to be planning a run. Her ambition
to be president is one of the few things anyone
knows for certain about her.
On July 5,
Park's campaign spokesman Lee Sang-il was quoted
as saying Park "continues to deliberate on what
her message will be". This quotation is a glimpse
into Park's style: She develops her policy stances
in response to the mood of the moment. In her
campaign for the presidency, Park will likely have
to break her habit of keeping mum when asked about
important issues.
"She's not a good
listener," said Kim Hee-jung, a 36-year-old mother
who attended the event on Tuesday. "Her policies
are too abstract and may not be practical."
In Tuesday's appearance, Park did make
something of a platform proposal by highlighting
three areas of importance: economic
democratization, job creation and social welfare.
These will all be popular with an electorate that
is concerned with inequality and unemployment.
Those aren't issues that have always been
championed by Park. When she last sought the
presidency in 2007, she cast herself as a Korean
Margaret Thatcher, a champion of business and
small government. These choices show her
propensity to adapt to changes in public
sentiment.
According to a poll conducted
from July 2-6 by RealMeter, 41% of voters said
they would vote for Park, followed by 20% for
software mogul Ahn Chul-soo and 15% for likely
opposition candidate Moon Jae-in. Ahn has still
not announced whether he will join the race. Both
would be underdogs going up against Park.
While Park enjoys unequaled support
levels, there are wide holes in her base. Much of
her support comes from older voters who have
memories of South Korea as an extremely poor
country; her father is credited with leading the
country's rapid industrialization. She lacks
support, however, among urban sophisticates in the
Greater Seoul area, home to nearly half of all
South Koreans.
Almost all the attendees at
her rally in Seoul appeared to be past retirement
age. For those older voters who chanted her name
on Tuesday, Park's lineage as her father's
daughter is a benefit, an indication that she
would get things done as president, as her father
did. For many voters who couldn't attend the 10am
weekday rally because they were busy at the office
or in class, it's a detriment, a sign of disregard
for democracy and a heavy-handed style of
governance.
The possibility of a woman
becoming president of a country that is still
fairly patriarchal might seem like a boon for
gender relations, but Park is unpopular with women
who aren't in her age bracket. She never married,
never had children, never had to struggle with
Korea's masculine, boozy business culture. In
short, she doesn't have experience with the issues
that are important to most South Korean women.
With characteristic shrewdness, Park plays
this to her advantage: She claims to have spent
her life so consumed with the well being of the
nation that she forewent marriage and motherhood.
Such is the depth of her willingness to sacrifice.
Park doesn't go out of her way to
emphasize her gender. Throughout her career, she
has cast herself as a politician who happens to be
female, not one who works according to uniquely
female instincts. That may be part of the reason
that her gender isn't a topic of much discussion
in South Korea.
"She's capable of leading
the country well, and it's because she's direct
and honest. It's not because she's a woman," said
Jeong Chun-joo, 76. "We're ready for a female
president because we're a developed country," she
added.
As the curtain rises on Park's
campaign, it still isn't clear what direction she
might take one of Asia's largest economic and
military powers in if she is victorious in
December's election.
South Korea's next
president will inherit some of the coldest
inter-Korean relations ever. No one really knows
how Park would handle North Korea, a country she
has visited, meeting then-leader Kim Jong-il. Park
would need to decide how to handle the questions
of food aid to and commercial exchange with the
North. Throughout her career, Park's
pragmatism has been her greatest asset. She has
been able to adapt to South Korea's fast-changing
politics. She is finally about to take center
stage, and we're about to find out if she can
remain ahead of the curve with the eyes of the
whole nation on her.
Steven
Borowiec is a South Korea-based writer.
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