Update: Park Geun-hye will be the next president of South Korea!
It’s election day in South Korea. Most schools and business are off (of course we aren’t though…ah joys of working in the academy world.) In South Korea, the president serves a single five-year term won through a first-past-the-post system (aka the most votes wins.) Perhaps it is a bit of a personal question, but I have been shameless in using the innocent foreigner card to ask Korean friends about the election and who they will support. Sometimes they are rather forthcoming. Other times they shush me and tell me it’s a secret…but with a little gentle prodding give it up anyway.
It’s election day in South Korea. Most schools and business are off (of course we aren’t though…ah joys of working in the academy world.) In South Korea, the president serves a single five-year term won through a first-past-the-post system (aka the most votes wins.) Perhaps it is a bit of a personal question, but I have been shameless in using the innocent foreigner card to ask Korean friends about the election and who they will support. Sometimes they are rather forthcoming. Other times they shush me and tell me it’s a secret…but with a little gentle prodding give it up anyway.
There are two major
candidates, Park Geun-hye, a female candidate from the incumbent conservative
party, and Moon Jae-in, a male candidate from the liberal party. It’s been a
tight presidential race the past several months, perhaps a slight lead going
toward Park. And it hasn’t been without its fair share of mudslinging.
Interestingly, Park is the
daughter of a past iron-fisted Korean dictator. She has had to publicly apologize for
abuses committed during her father’s rule, even though is he is esteemed throughout Korea for developing the Korean economy. Moon is a human rights lawyer and
former student activist actually jailed for opposing Park’s dictatorship in the
1970s. Park would be the first female president and pledges to close the wide gender income equality gap. A third independent but left-leaning
contender dropped out in the past couple of months in support of Moon to avoid
splitting the left-leaning vote.
According to my most
unscientific sample, younger people are more likely to support Moon while the
older generation leans toward Park. The swing voters are people are the people
in the 40-50 age range. I have tried to distinguish the candidates’ policy
differences by asking my adult students and Korean friends. I’ve been told the
candidates’ positions are quite similar but rather have opposing
philosophies…this I’m still deciphering. The occasional language barrier make news
articles my most reliable source.
Nearly every Korean I have talked with seemed pleased by Obama’s reelection in November. Despite this, some Koreans
who like Obama still prefer Park in the South Korean election. My understanding is that the American conservative party is much farther to the right than in Korea…but
the possibility of hypocrisy has also crossed my mind. I
don’t know enough to make any definitive statements.
Moon proposes to shorten the
compulsory military time for men from 21 months to 18 months, which opponents
claim will significantly weaken South Korean military strength. Both candidates promise to crack down on domestic abuse, which is
traditionally considered to be a family issue. Both candidates want to regulate the big chaebols (big conglomerates that dominate the Korean economy:
Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Lotte, SK) though Moon seems to prefer more stringent
conditions. Reducing monthly bills and tuition is also on his agenda. Park
pledges to increase monthly pensions for the elderly. People I have talked to
feel that there are many campaign promises being made that the candidates will
not be able to follow through with. When it comes down to it, certain promises might
not be financially possible.
BBC wrote that “economic
issues have dominated the election build-up, including tough competition to
find employment for young people. Both candidates have promised to boost social welfare spending, amid
rising income inequality and concern over the dominance of big business.” North
Korea has not been as central to the election as you might think. The current
president, Lee Myung-bak, took a hard-lined stance toward North Korea,
discontinuing investment and aid until compliance with nuclear weapon policy
was reached. This was a drastic swing from the 1998-2008 ‘sunshine policy’ of
previous presidents where “billions of dollars of South Korean
investment, aid and goods flowed into the North to encourage it to shed its
isolation and hostility, and to try to reduce the economic gap between the two
Koreas and the cost of reunification in the future” according to the New York Times.
Candidates Moon and Park both
pledge a more moderate stance, since President Lee’s position toward North Korea has not
curbed nuclear weapon proliferation and North Korea remains highly penalized by his policy.
However, Moon wants to keep diplomatic channels open making his policy more in line with the sunshine policy than Park’s stance is.
The results tonight!
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