The impeachment of the South Korean president in March plunged the country into political chaos. But his victory at the polls last Thursday signals a return to normalcy, writes Gamal Nkrumah Behind the dark clouds gathering over the Korean Peninsula, there is a glimmer of hope. Voter turnout was very high for the 15 April Korean parliamentary election and polling was peaceful. At last, the hard- won struggles of the student-led democracy movement of the 1980s and 1990s are reaping a rich harvest of openness and transparency. An ongoing investigation into illegal political fundraising is undermining the grip of a traditional Korean political establishment blighted by corruption scandals. The conservative old guard had long nurtured a mindset with an ingrained hostility to liberal ideas. Trade union activity was ruthlessly suppressed. Women were excluded from the corridors of power and student activism brutally curbed. But 17 years ago a modicum of democracy was introduced, and now South Korea is finally growing out of its phase of nascent democracy into its full- fledged form. But South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun still awaits a constitutional court ruling on the outgoing parliament to impeach him for election violations. The president was stripped of his powers. Koreans now clearly want fresh political faces untainted by corruption. Last Thursday's parliamentary vote stands him in good stead. The prime minister took over presidential duties while the court considers the president's destiny. His party won, but Roh was not in a celebratory mood. The National Assembly -- parliament -- voted to impeach Roh in March, shortly ahead of last week's general elections. The vote was preceded by an ugly fracas in which members of the outgoing National Assembly exchanged blows in internationally- televised scuffles and brawls. The incident proved to be a turning point for Roh and his party, Uri, which is loosely translated as Our Party. Roh is still awaiting a Constitutional Court ruling on the outgoing National Assembly's decision to impeach him for charges of corruption, trumped-up when he threatened to expose its members, ironically enough, of the same. For now, the prime minister has taken charge of presidential duties. So although his party won, Roh is in no mood to celebrate just yet. Nevertheless, the country stands poised for the introduction of radical social and economic reforms. Roh insists on increasing corporate transparency and he is not afraid of tackling corruption head-on. He appeals directly to South Korea's have-nots, women, students and youth. Mindful of his obligations to his constituency, Roh promptly surrounded himself by a team of independent human rights activists. The possible consequences of greater openness and accountability in South Korea have not been lost on the old guard. Left-leaning parties have featured prominently in the political landscape of Western Europe, but in northeast Asia it has traditionally been very difficult to even imagine the left gaining the upper hand. The Socialists' clean sweep in Spain was surprising, but not altogether so. In South Korea, on the other hand, it is a rare and phenomenal occurrence. For the first time in Korea's 17-year old experiment with Western-style democracy, a leftist party is in full control of the National Assembly. What is more, the legislature is now expected to implement Roh's radical reformist agenda. The South Korean president will seek to institute radical political change. In order to do so, he will have to muster all the political acumen at hand. The country was in the iron grip of the conservatives for much too long. But Roh is a shrewd politician, who is accustomed to facing adverse situations and making the most out of them. His impeachment is clearly a case in point. The Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) -- one of the country's major traditional parties -- was the biggest loser in parliamentary poll. Roh was elected president on an MDP ticket, but he soon dumped his benefactors upon assuming political office to form his own party. As his opponents found out last Thursday, Roh is not an easy man to defeat. With the country's uneasy relationship with its long-standing military backer -- the United States -- at stake, it will be interesting to watch how he deals with Washington. Although South Korea has pledged to send 3,600 troops to Iraq, Washington has some cause for concern. Roh and the Korean left are impatient with the tough US stance on the supposed security threat posed by North Korea. He is not particularly concerned with North Korea's 1.1 million-strong army. Nor is he worried about this northern neighbour's nuclear warheads. Indeed, South Korean companies are keen to invest in North Korea. "The torch has indeed been passed to a new generation; that much is clear," wrote Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum in the Korea Times. "What is less clear is what this means," he pointed out. A taste of what the future holds might be gleaned from a report in the Korea Herald about attitudes to the deployment of Korean troops in Iraq. "Only a few days after the nation selected the new members of the 17th parliament, a freshman group of lawmakers has raised the new hot issue of whether Korea should still push ahead with its commitment of sending more troops to Iraq," Korea's widest circulation English-language daily read. The largest party until recently was the right-of- centre Grand National Party (GNP) which attracted the elderly, and Koreans who inhabit the eastern half of the peninsula. Roh's liberal Uri Party has now usurped the GNP's place, and its supporters are young, progressive, urban, and are geographically concentrated in the western half of the country. The political deadlock is broken -- Uri succeeded in more than tripling its seats in parliament. The president's party increased the number of its seats in the National Assembly from 49 in the pre-election parliament to the current 152. But the regional and generational divide persists. Overcoming their traditional rivalry, the GNP and MDP jointly voted for Roh's impeachment. But now the MDP has been relegated to the sidelines. The MDP's stronghold in the relatively poor and left- leaning southwest voted instead for Roh's Uri. "Poll Disaster Pushes MDP into History Books," ran a Korea Times headline. "Regional Rivalry Cited as Number One Social Problem," ran another. The Korean peninsula is politically divided along an east-west partition as well as the north and south divide. Seoul and the western half of the peninsula voted solidly in favour of Uri. The east, on the other hand, voted along more traditional lines. The eastern provinces of Kangwon, North and South Kyongsang opted for the conservative GNP. And the western provinces of Kyonggi, Inchon and Seoul, North and South Cholla and Cheju island voted overwhelmingly for Uri. More regional reverberations may be expected in the aftermath of the 15 April poll. The recent elections may well serve to show up the social, political and economic problems that the country has been experiencing in recent times. Economic growth rates have been falling and unemployment levels rising, until popular disgruntlement with the old political establishment reached boiling point. The South Korean economy had enjoyed growth rates that averaged seven per cent in the past four decades. The country's 49 million people enjoyed an average annual income of $9,460 in 2001 according to World Bank estimates. Today economic growth rates are down to three per cent. Foreign direct investment has more than halved over the past three years. According to the GNP, it is labour militancy that is scaring off foreign investors. The conservatives say Roh is to blame. He is engaged in a crusade against the sprawling, family-owned chaebol -- business groups -- such as Samsung and Hyundai. The chaebol control media and party politics in Korea, or at least they did so until Roh took office. For now, Roh's fight against corruption looks like it will continue, and he has certainly capitalised out of the wave of public anger. After all, the impeached president exposed the centuries-old links between big businesses and the government. South Korea's relations with its neighbours may also change. The country has historically had a tempestuous relationship with Japan, the former colonial master in Korea. The Koreans have never forgiven the Japanese for atrocities committed during the colonial era. On the other hand, South Korea's relations with its giant neighbour China have improved tremendously over the past decade. China is now the country's chief trading partner. Last year the People's Republic overtook the US as the biggest importer of Korean goods. Indeed, observers believe that China will soon replace the US as the most influential economic and political foreign power in the Korean peninsula. Domestically, the president is as popular as ever. He is now in the perfect position to break the old political grid. But he still has powerful foes. Politicians of different ideological shades muttered brief platitudes about economic growth and their belief in a close alliance with the US. But younger Koreans are yearning for a less dependent relationship on the US. Many do not want Korean troops deployed in Iraq. By contrast, the GNP voted for deployment. The GNP leader, the daughter of the late Korean President Park Chung Hee, dismissed Uri's impressive performance as an oddity. She stressed that the Constitutional Court has until September to decide whether to dismiss Roh or restore him to office. If the Constitutional Court reinstates him, Roh might still be obliged to appease the Americans and send Korean troops to Iraq. Elected in 2002 on a liberal ticket, Roh has distanced himself somewhat from the leftist Democratic Liberal Party (DLP) which, with 10 seats in the National Assembly, has emerged as the country's third largest party. The DLP wants Korean troops pulled out of Iraq. With 152 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly, Uri can afford to ignore the DLP. But, as the leader of a state so heavily influenced by the US since the end of the Second World War, it is unlikely that Roh will be able to go back on the pledge to deploy to troops to Iraq.
