Something for Pakistan to learn from
Far-right politicians label Moon as a communist sympathiser, but historically, that is a label used by right wing radicals in South Korea to try to marginalise anyone with differing political views
For decades Pakistan has only looked westward. Facing east, it mostly countered hostile India and a friend on the business table — Japan. Now, finally, Pakistan seems interested in the eastern world beyond India and Japan. Of several countries, the Republic of Korea seems most welcoming.
Korea and Pakistan came into being almost the same time as Korea became an independent country in 1945 while Pakistan was created in 1947. Korea replicated Pakistan’s model of economic development in the 1960s. Both Pakistan and Korea have, in their immediate neighbourhood, their worst enemies who always threaten their peaceful coexistence. Hence, both Pakistan and Korea are sister countries in some ways.
However, Pakistan strayed from economic development soon and rather chose to build nuclear and conventional weapons to protect itself from its enemy, India. On the other hand, Korea kept its reforms and innovation agenda intact and soon saw its economic boom. Today, Korea is economically more viable and vibrant than Pakistan. You must have seen Daewoo buses on the roads. What about Lahore-to-Islamabad Motorway? These are the symbols of Korean prowess.
However, still Korea has to seek US support for protection from its enemy, North Korea.
The people of Pakistan and RoK share rich historical and cultural links too. Historians claim that the monk who spread Buddhist teachings throughout the Korean peninsula back in the 4th century — Monk Maranatha — hailed from Taxila, a city in present-day Pakistan. Three centuries later, in 7th century, a Korean Buddhist monk, Hyecho, travelled through the Punjab, including Taxila. The tales about his journey are widely read in Korea to this day. Moreover, there are many similarities even in today’s Korean and Urdu languages which bind the peoples of Pakistan and Republic of Korea.
Vibrant Korean democracy — a model for Pakistan
A new chapter of democratic history is being written in South Korea, where an elected president of the country, Park Geun-hye, has been impeached over charges of massive corruption.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court formally opened President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment trial on 3 January, whose powers had been suspended since the National Assembly voted on Dec9 to impeach her as an investigation is going on into the highly charged scandal involving the chief executive and her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil.
The nine-member court has until June to decide whether Ms Park will be reinstated or removed from office. In fact, the court would have to decide the case before 13 March as out of its nine members, the chief justice and a fellow judge would be retiring, reducing the nine-judge court to seven, which could raise questions about the verdict.
Any decision on Park, either to remove her from office with an election to be called 60 days later, or for her to be reinstated, would be historical.
President Park Geun-hye’s attorneys and the independent counsel team are discussing holding face-to-face questioning of the impeached leader over her corruption allegations this week.
Apart from the trial itself, one must appreciate the healthy democratic institutions and traditions of South Korea as millions of pro-democracy protesters are holding perhaps most peaceful demonstrations of human history.
Can you believe around 2.3 million people gather in the streets, hold candle-lit protests against the president of the country, clean roads in the middle of the night and leave without disturbing any furniture?
This is exactly what is happening in South Korean Capital Seoul. The protesters come from cities, towns and villages. The protesters have all flavours of a society – from political and rights activists to farmers and entrepreneurs, Buddhist monks, children, young and the old.
Despite the fact that the protesters are demanding resignation of the country’s first elected woman president, Park Geun-hye, the women are specially playing a key role in these demonstrations. These diverse demonstrations are attracting world attention these days and the diversified democratic process in South Korea is being closely monitored. Pakistan has lot to learn from these demonstrations too.
Despite the fact that Ms Park Geun-hye is the first elected president of South Korea, she has not blamed that she is being targeted for being a woman by a male-dominated society. She has also not claimed that since she is an elected president of the country, her impeachment would derail the democratic process in the country as is practice in Pakistan.
Whenever any elected leader is questioned under corruption allegations – whether it is Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto or her spouse Asif Zardari and his cronies – they start playing the victim card.
With the Panamagate case being heard in the Supreme Court hinting at involvement of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family membersin mega corruption, the ruling party again is taking refuge under victimhood.
Like always, everyone who wants a fair trial of the prime minister and his family is being tagged as a threat to the democratic system. Judges are being hurled veiled threats and the court is again facing pressure from the ruling and the opposition parties.
Perhaps Pakistani political leadership needs to learn from South Korea where strong protests start from the afternoon and continue tillmidnight but not a single stone thrown at buildings. Before leaving after the demos are over, the protesters clean the roads and everything would be back to normal the next morning.
The protestors also postponed their protests for New Lunar Year celebrations in Korea and they would again gather on roads once the vacations are over.
Top contenders for Korean presidential race
If Ms Park is removed from office, an election would be called 60 days later. A recent survey has shown Moon Jae-in, a former chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), as top contender for the slot.
Moon Jae-in, a former chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), extended his lead over former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the latest poll held on 17 January 2017, on potential presidential candidates, amid growing public calls for a judgment on the Park Geun-hye administration.
The survey by Hankook Research at the request of the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, showed that Moon received support of 31.4 percent, up 11.7 percentage points from last month.
Ban, regarded as Moon’s biggest rival in the race to Cheong Wa Dae, saw his support advance 5.9 percentage points to 20 percent, but failed to narrow the gap.
Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung was third at 9.5 percent, while Ahn Cheol-soo, a former co-leader of the second-largest opposition People’s Party, and South Chungcheong Governor, An Hee-jung rounded out the top five with 4.8 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.
Moon, who lost narrowly to President Park in the 2012 presidential election, was an even stronger candidate in two- and three-way race scenarios.
Moon had 54.1 percent in a two-way duel, well beyond the margin of error to beat Ban, who garnered 33.2 percent; and he was also well ahead of Ban and Ahn in a trilateral race — 47 percent for Moon, 29.4 percent for Ban and 12.1 percent for Ahn.
Ban returned home last week with much fanfare after ending 10 years of service as the UN chief.
However, he has yet to live up to expectations amid a split in conservative voters. Recently, 29 lawmakers broke away from the ruling Saenuri Party to form the Barun Party following the Dec9impeachment of President Park.
Before the corruption and influence-peddling scandal broke in late October, Ban was the runaway favourite among a field of presidential hopefuls, including Moon; and at that time, he was highly anticipated to run in the election under the banner of Park’s Saenuri Party.
However, in the wake of the scandal that led to Park’s impeachment, Ban’s approval also nosedived — he once even yielded runner-up place to the rising Seongnam mayor.
According to the poll, 66.5 percent of Saenuri Party supporters and 40.3 percent of Barun Party backers were in favour of Ban. However, only 38.3 percent of all respondents said Ban should run for president, with 55.2 percent disapproving.
“Ban’s return has failed to bring about a convention effect so far, given that his approval is well behind that of Moon,” the poll said.
“Unless Ban seeks ways to change the negative public sentiment toward him by the Lunar New Year holiday, it will not be easy for the former UN chief to catch up with Moon.”
By party, the DPK stood as the most popular with 41.8 percent, followed by the People’s Party with 10.8 percent and the Saenuri Party with 10.7 percent.
Top contender’s plan for Korea
Moon Jae-in, the top contender for the presidency, is a liberal leader who wants good relations with all neighbouring states, is seen as a pragmatist leader who wants to strike a balance in relations between China and the US.
The views of Moon on strategic issues are important as the liberal party chief wants Korea not to be a protégé of the US and rather he wants Korea to negotiate with China and Russia for the installation of missile system Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) – a controversial decision China and Russia strongly oppose.
In an apparent reversal of his previous position, Moon reiterated it was “desirable” to postpone the decision of the THAAD deployment until the next South Korean government begins its term, but seemed to suggest that he would not cancel the agreement if elected President.
“I am not saying that [the issue] should be handed over to the next government with the policy of canceling the decision of the THAAD deployment,” Moon was quoted by Korean media.
“I don’t think it’s easy to cancel the agreement which has already been made between Korea and the United States.” Maintaining that there are “both gains and losses” in THAAD deployment, Moon said the “rough-and-ready process” through which the decision was made brought about a “stronger backlash” from Russia and China.
Moon on Monday reiterated he had taken “no specific side” on the deployment of THAAD system, when asked if he had reversed his position on the issue.
But Moon has previously argued that THAAD deployment should be reconsidered. On 9 October Moon Jae-in called for the “temporary suspension of all procedures” for the THAAD deployment and urged the government to put more diplomatic effort into dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear arms.
The US wants immediate installation of the missile system claiming it would shield South Korea from any threats of invasion from North Korea.
A diplomatic source told this scribe that the Korean people were very apprehensive about the invasion threat from North Korea and it seems that Moon Jae-in has expressed flexibility in his stance over THAAD per the public views.
Moon managed to capitalise on the conservatives’ decline in popularity amid a series of corruption scandals: as one pundit said, “Moon had managed to portray himself as a moderate and rational leader who has the backing of the younger generation”.
Moon was elected as the leader of major opposition coalition, New Politics Alliance for Democracy in February 2015.
Far-right politicians label Moon as a communist sympathiser, but historically, that is a label used by right wing radicals in South Korea to try to marginalise anyone with differing political views or who are pro-engagement with North Korea, irrespective of ideology.
However, Moon is advocating the repeal of Korea’s national security laws which have historically been used by right wing factions to restrict and oppress left factions in S. Korean politics, and has promised to abolish the NIS (National Intelligence Service) for domestic information gathering in order to maintain their political neutrality. His policies are very similar to those of Rho Moo Hyun. Moon is currently favoured to win Korea’s next election as of January 2017.
