Opinion | How not to be a president: the Korean lesson
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
The Korean presidency is a poisoned chalice. Few occupants of that top post have survived intact: they are either assassinated, jailed, overthrown, exiled, or scarred by scandal. In the latest episode, the incumbent has added another layer of intrigue as a doting husband. Under him, K-drama has come roaring back. The whole world is waiting for the next instalment. This storyline has everything: a potent cocktail of sex, fraud, money and power. Chinese history has taught us that nothing good can ever come of throwing a beautiful woman into the political equation. Only recently, President Yoon Suk-yeol was basking in the reflected glory of his glamorous wife, with no less a leader than Biden drooling lustfully over her. Mind you, Kim Keon-hee was not born beautiful. Rather, she was "made" beautiful—courtesy of the famous Korean cosmetic surgery. She even changed her name to match her new facial identity. But this man-made beauty has degenerated into his political liability. For her taste has sidled into something ugly, such as stock manipulation, allegedly falsifying her academic records and plagiarism. Politically, it is costing her husband plenty. Perhaps she should be renamed Korea's Lady Macbeth.
Yoon must be feeling bored with being bland. He decided to go for a stomach-churning stunt by declaring martial law, with the insidious aim of putting his key opponents in jail. In recent years, the Korean economy has been sitting in the doldrums. As a former prosecutor, he is no economic wizard. He opted to go strutting on the international stage instead, playing American stooge to the hilt. He dramatically departed from two well-established Korean foreign policies, and in doing so, ran counter to popular sentiments. He was openly pro-Japanese when his country simmers with anger against Japan's atrocities during its brutal occupation of the country. Second, he is inexplicably anti-China, when most Koreans have no quarrel with Asia's peaceful major power. He tried to make waves in the Taiwan Strait, where angels fear to tread, foolishly provoking a China hungry for peace, just to please his US puppet master. Then he dived into the morass of the Ukraine war in a high-profile meeting with the Ukrainian president, gifting this war-torn country a generous loan of 3 trillion won or over US$2.1 billion. It is a loan in name, but for all intents and purposes, it looks more like an uncollectible bad debt, money that his belt-tightening people need in a faltering economy.
Then came his deadliest miscalculation--imposing martial law on his shell-shocked country. This move was calculated to curb his critics and keep his wife out of jail. But it turned out to be ill-fated and short-lived, lasting all of six hours, hastily overturned by MP's when universally condemned. He has survived the first impeachment bid because his ruling party doesn't want to hand electoral advantage to opposition parties. He has bitten off more than he can chew.
Politically, he is damaged goods---damaged beyond repair. His credibility to govern is gone. A degree of uncertainty surrounds his fate. But his days in the green-tiled palace are numbered. His party prefers an orderly exit. But with 73.6% of his people howling for impeachment, and his popular support plunging to a mere 13%, the opposition will not rest until he is successfully impeached and removed.
He rose to power by virtue of the Peter Principle. He can blame his fall on Murphy's Law. It's time for the shortest-serving Korean president in history to take a curtain call. The orange jumpsuit awaits, or exile in America beckons. A super-sized, pig-headed fool has stayed two years too long in the top job. He and his wife may again have their moment in the sun lying on a Miami beach. Life is a bubble. His will burst sooner than most.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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