Hong’s Cave

Something happened in Korea that will be recorded in Korean history.

President Roh Moo-Hyun was impeached by the opposition party parliament members for election fraud, corruption and incompetence. The matter is sent to the Constitutional Court to be decided whether the result of the impeachment vote would stand. For now, his presidential power has been suspended and his Prime Minister has taken over the job temporarily.

Personally, I doubt it will stick at the Constitutional Court and this probably was a political strike for the national parliamentary election a month away. I am sorry that those opposition PMs thought the matter of impeachment that lightly, and I hope they all lose in the election.

But the fact is that this shows the leadership quality (or lack there of) of President Roh. He has a very righteous and inflexible attitude that I am surprised he is in politics. Not only him, but his followers all carry a similar attitude. This has had more affect of disharmony (not bringing people together) and is definitely a cause for disaster, especially when your party has less than 1/5th of the parliament.

I believe one of the many qualities of a leader is to convince others to follow you, not just to force your will onto others. President Roh has many good qualities in my mind, but this he does not have. His competitive personality had created and intensified the level of opposition, and this impeachment incident clearly asks the question whether he can lead the nation.

After the parliament’s decision, there has been demonstrations by the supporters of President Roh. His supporters are generally young (in their 20s and 30s), and their knowledge and use of the Internet was what made it possible for the unlikely candidate to become the president.

The problem with this younger crowd is that they are not exercising their rights to vote. Of course, they did for the presidential election, but that’s just one of many elections to select those who would represent them (e.g., the parliament members). I’ve read a news article a couple of weeks ago that in a recent local election in Korea, majority of the voters were 50s and up, and hardly any in 20s.

This is truly sad. After Mr. Roh became the president, his core supporters in the party did not have the patience, so all 47 of them broke out and formed a new minority ruling party. What were they thinking? I am sure they think that they have the support of the people, but in a recent popularity poll, President Roh’s support was below 30%, and this, I think, is assuming that all younger crowds turn out (which is quite likely now with the impeachment pending).

Anyway, this is a sad sad situation in Korea, who just cannot seem to enjoy a moment of harmony and tranquility in the past century.