Updates for August 3   2008-08-03 06:46

U.S. President George W. Bush will be visiting Seoul on June 5-6 to talk with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak. As my previous reports should have made clear, many Koreans have been disappointed with Lee's overly friendly attitude towards anything American: beef imports, FTA, health care system, and even Mr. Bush himself -- see the cover photograph of my July 16 article. Many of us are therefore looking upon Mr. Bush's visit as a great opportunity to protest against what we feel is a humiliating diplomatic relationship. To be precise, there are good reasons to believe that relationship to be not only humiliating but also very dangerous: importing American meat with virtually no quarantine is just another example of something gone upside down. (Well, there is a bit of perfunctory quarantine of course, but what kind of government voluntarily gives up its authority to suspend imports in case a problem is found?)

I'll talk about Mr. Bush's visit next time, as it is impossible to tell what's going to happen until we actually get there. In the meantime, here are a few updates for this week.

Daum Agora members stage a sit-in protest in a marketplace in Busan. Even as the government tries very hard to censor the Internet, the Korean People continue to arrange protests through online forums. It's a good way to reach out to the teens and tweens, who would otherwise have been indifferent to the terrible shape in which our country currently is.

1. A New Police Unit for Riot Control

On July 30, the National Police Agency launched a new professional unit which it says will gradually replace existing riot-control forces which are largely made up of conscripts. The 1,700 men who make up this special unit, it is said, will specialize in controlling and suppressing demonstrations. Now, the only upside of this story is that conscripts will no longer be forced to beat up their brothers, sisters, parents, and friends. (By the way, on July 25, one of the conscripts who had been employed in this way refused to return to duty, for the sake of his conscience. He is, of course, wanted by the police; the Catholic church is currently protecting him.) The bad news, of course, is that the creation of this special unit seems a clear indication that the government plans to go even more brutal against dissidents and other kinds of protesters. Until 1991, there was a notorious special unit called "White Bone Corps" (baekgoldan) that showed up whenever political dissidents tried to protest, beating them up and sometimes even killing them. Anyone over 40 who had ever participated in anti-government protests in the 80's would grind their teeth at the mention of this ruthless unit. And now, after 17 years, something fairly similar to White Born Corps is being revived -- just in time for Mr. Bush's visit. Oh yes, President Lee just can't afford to let Mr. Bush see massive protests on his way to the Presidential House.

A few members of the new special unit publicly demonstrate some of their riot control maneuvers. Hmm, doesn't this look a little overkill, when these guys are most likely to face a crowd of families with young children, teenage girls with their friends, and so on? I mean, we're citizens, not terrorists -- unless you mean by "terrorist" something more like "anyone who disagrees".

2. Election of Education Superintendent for Seoul

Thanks to a new law that had come in to effect about a year ago, for the first time in recent history, citizens were allowed to vote for a new education superintendent (ES) for Seoul. As obscure as that title sounds, the ES is responsible for setting and enforcing virtually every regulation on public education that you can think of. Especially since it is President Lee's policy to deregulate public education as much as possible, it is solely within the ES's power to do what he wants to do with the public school system -- at least in Seoul. Want your private school to have more control over its curriculum? Ask the ES. Want to segregate rich kids from poor kids? Ask the ES. Want to pluck out a few national heroes from history textbooks because they were socialists? Ask the ES. You get the picture.

Anyway, the election was held on July 30, and there was a lot of hype surrounding it. No, that's not true. Actually, there wasn't a whole lot of hype at all. A number of citizens complained afterwards that they weren't even properly notified of the location of the polls, many of which were located in local Protestant churches. (Oh yes, a lot of Buddhists were mad about this.) There were six candidates, but only two of them made their names known: Kong Jeong-taek, who is very conservative; and Ju Gyeong-bok, who is very progressive. The former was backed by President Lee's party, while the latter is a long-time member of the highly controversial Teachers' Union. Dictated by ideological strife and shrouded in all sorts of much more serious hype, the election went almost unnoticed -- despite efforts by members of Daum Agora, the online discussion forum, to raise awareness. Out of 8 million voters in Seoul, only 1.24 million made it to the polls. (That translates into a turnout rate of 15.5%.)

Even so, the results tell a lot about the present state of South Korea. Mr. Kong, who pledged to uphold President Lee's as-much-deregulation-as-possible policy, won by a narrow margin of 22,000 votes. On the other hand, the progressive Mr. Ju won in 17 out of 25 districts in Seoul, and only lost by a tiny margin in another five. Taken together, Mr. Ju gained 44,000 more votes than Mr. Kang in those 22 districts. Mr. Kang, however, won a landslide victory in three of Seoul's most affluent districts: Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa. There he gained 66,000 more votes than Mr. Ju, which helped him become the winner. In short, citizens of Seoul were extremely polarized in their voting patterns. (See this news report for more information.)

How did Mr. Kang manage to rake in so many votes in Gangnam, Seocho, and Songpa districts? Well, it doesn't take a Holmes to figure that out. First, Mr. Kang belongs to President Lee's conservative Hannara Party, which is doing everything it can to make life easier for the rich. (Hannara Party recently proposed a bill that would significantly alleviate tax burdens for those who own real estates in excess of $600,000. According to Hannara Party, that figure represents the middle class, and the middle class shouldn't be penalized for being middle class. Which made a lot of real middle-class people raise their eyebrows: what kind of middle-class man in Korea owns real estates in excess of $600,000? Remember, the average Korean only makes $20,000 a year!) Second, Mr. Ju, the progressive candidate, was burdened by his Union affiliation. For a lot of Koreans who are somewhere in-between, the Teachers' Union is far too radical to be comfortable with. Mr. Ju's opponents took advantage of this fact and concentrated on attacking the Teachers' Union throughout the election. Third, just a couple of weeks before the election, Mr. Kang had clearly demonstrated his unending love for the affluent residents of Gangnam and neighboring districts. What was that? He opposed the construction of rental apartments in Gangnam. That's right, he seriously messed with the housing authorities. What does housing have to do with education?

It means a lot, if you're Korean. Rental apartments are much cheaper than those Gangnam condos for which so many people paid dearly. So if rental apartments are built in Gangnam, low-income folks will be able to live there! OMG How can I let my dear son go to the same school as somebody whose parents don't own a Mercedes and who can't even afford a $200/hr private tutor? We don't mix with those scums of the earth! Don't you see our school ratings (not to mention real estate values) going down the drain? Stop the pollution, please! End of the story. Personally, I'm not a fan of Mr. Ju nor of the Teacher's Union. But to see the election of someone as important as the education superintendent of Seoul being dictated by economic interests isn't the most pleasant of sites, either. The ES of Seoul is in charge of a $6-billion budget. If that much tax money goes into something as useless as lobbying against the construction of rental apartments, we'll be looking at much more angry protests from residents of the majority of other districts who clearly chose otherwise.

The sad thing is that the turnout rate was much higher (around 20%) in those affluent districts. Gangnam folks are damn serious about protecting their school ratings and real estate values! In the end, it was this higher turnout rate among Hannara Party supporters that tipped the scales in favor of Mr. Kong in last week's election. If only other people -- residents of less affluent districts -- showed the same level of interest in important political affairs! To be sure, there is a sense in which the entire culture of today forces the most disadvantaged classes to be indifferent to such issues. They have been so thoroughly betrayed in past elections that they no longer have any hope in those clamorous, hypocritical events. So they let their own voices drown out, and the vicious circle continues. If only all of us realized how much change we could bring about by standing up and demanding our rights! I mean, rights belong to all of us, not just to those privileged few who drive Mercedes and get their children $200/hr private tutors. (By the way, those German cars cost twice as much in Korea as they do in other places.)

3. First Lady's Cousin Arrested for Bribery/Fraud

Ms. Kim Ok-hee, age 74, was arrested on July 31 on allegations of fraud. She is a cousin of First Lady Kim Yoon-ok; and she apparently used this fact to make Mr. Kim Jong-won, head of Seoul's bus transportation co-op, believe that she could turn him into a member of the National Assembly. (Some members of the National Assembly are appointed by political parties rather than elected, so this offer wasn't all that unrealistic.) In exchange for the opportunity, the 67-year-old executive of a bus company paid Ms. Kim over $3 million, but he never became a member of the National Assembly. According to the Prosecutor's Office, Ms. Kim never intended to keep her word. So she was arrested for fraud rather than bribery.

So far so good; we know that these things happen all the time. But of course the question is: was the First Lady or the President involved in these dealings? The Blue House immediately released a statement saying that neither President Lee nor First Lady Kim had any knowledge of the septuagenarian cousin's misdeeds, and that the cousins don't get along well with each other anyway. But a quick Internet search by our trusty Agorians (members of Daum Agora) revealed a couple of interesting facts:

1) In 2004, when Lee Myung-Bak was Mayor of Seoul, he overhauled the public transportation system of the city. The operation required a lot of cooperation between city officials and bus companies, so Mr. Kim, who claims to have been defrauded this time, knew President Lee fairly well. Mr. Kim even played a significant role in Lee's presidential campaign last year.

2) First Lady Kim and her cousin seem to have appeared together on several occasions during Lee's presidential campaign. Wives of presidential candidates don't normally bring along cousins with whom they "don't get along well", do they?

One of the photographs released on the Internet yesterday. Some people claim that the old woman to the right of First Lady Kim (center) is Ms. Kim.

Edit (August 4): There is debate as to whether the old woman seen in the photograph above is Ms. Kim or not. The Blue House claims that she isn't; the news report in which the photograph was first discovered has been deleted from major news sites; and everyone else is left wondering if anything fishy is going on here.

What do these discoveries mean? Well, we don't trust the government's word that neither President Lee nor First Lady Kim was involved in the bribery/fraud. This is not to say that we suspect a scandal involving the President himself. Rather, I would like to suggest that the case of Ms. Kim smells a lot like the twisting and bending of law, and selective enforcement, that I have been talking about recently. I mean, why fraud? According to this news report, others who tried to do what Ms. Kim allegedly did had been arrested and prosecuted for violation of election law. And if Ms. Kim was charged with violation of election law, the person who paid her could also be prosecuted. Why is the same crime classified as a violation of election law and/or bribery in one case, and as mere fraud in another case?

4. Protests

Yesterday was Saturday, and Saturday afternoons are reserved for protests. As I have reported in a number of other articles, many People have turned away from protests -- which they see as futile -- to possibly more effective means of resistance, such as boycotts, lawsuits, and investigative journalism. A sturdy group of citizens, however, showed up once again to tell the world that our candles burn still. Catholic priests and nuns, who helped bring peace in early July, walked at the front of the rally one more time. Instead of tiny pickets to talk about individual issues (there are too many to talk about), the Catholics produced a large banner with a Bible verse on it: "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known" (Matthew 10:26). Several hundred citizens followed, and continued rallying well into the evening. This should be a chilling reminder to President Lee and his followers that none of their injustices will go unnoticed. If Lee really is a devout Christian as he claims to be, he had better listen now or somebody more divine than us might lose His temper!

Many citizens were concerned about the police's new special unit, which was quite visible on the streets last night (see picture below). But perhaps due to the presence of the Catholic clergy, these men -- who, according to rumors, are skilled in the martial arts -- remained mostly peaceful. That changed around 10:00 p.m. when demonstrators were beginning to go home, reminding each other to return on August 5 in time for Mr. Bush's arrival. The police suddenly charged into the crowd and began to make arrests -- apparently without any provocation. Which again makes us suspect that the government is just trying to scare us off. In total, thirteen people were arrested in last night's demonstration.

Since May, over 1,000 citizens have been arrested for participating in demonstrations. Many of them were injured while being arrested; and as Amnesty International confirmed, many of them were denied adequate health care upon arrest. Over 2,000 citizens have also been injured due to police violence, and unconfirmed reports of a death (or two) continue to circulate on the 'net. Some of these reports look like nothing more than urban legends, but others come with quite a bit of alleged photographic and logical evidence. The man who first suggested the "death theory" was promptly arrested (for what crime?) and a trial is under way; just a couple of days ago, another man was arrested for running a newspaper ad looking for eyewitnesses. Whatever the truth is, we know one thing: the last time the police operated a special unit dedicated to the suppression of anti-government protests, numerous lives were lost.

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