For all of Neil Kinnock's achievements in modernising the Labour party in the United Kingdom, he will still be remembered by many for his slip into the sea whilst campaigning in the 1987 general election. Likewise, the Republican candidate Bob Dole, for all his achievements over a long career, was left with a fall from a stage whilst campaigning during the 1996 US Presidential election as defining, metaphorically if not literally, his race against the overwhelmingly successful Bill Clinton.
GNP candidate made gaffe
For Na Kyeong Won, right-wing GNP candidate in the Seoul mayoral elections, her gaffe at the epicentre of media interest and public scrutiny was to bathe a disabled child in front of the TV cameras, something which many civic activists and netizens, especially amongst the influential 20- and 30-somethings who overwhelmingly ended up voting against her, saw as patronising and thoughtless.
Economic growth has always been a priority
In the end though such an event must be taken into a wider context of the wider development of what is still a nascent democracy in the country; it was but in 1987 when popular uprisings ended the regime of Chun Doo Won, and led to free democratic elections. Ever since the country has continued to prioritise economic growth, an export-led protectionist model that saw geographic industrial planning as state policy, and the nourishment of powerful Chaebol corporations and their influential familial kleptocrats. Crony capitalism has led to vested interests where money has become king, even if such a panacea of individual enrichment ends in the tragedies of suicide, disgrace and rumour which befell the likes of former President Noh Moo Hyun or more recently Jeong Gu Haeng, a top Korean banker.
Na Kyeong Won, it must be said would always be up against the fact that she represents the same party as Lee Myung Bak, who is nearly four years into his administration as President of South Korea, and whose popularity has waned. Yet the independent victor in the capital city election Park Won Soon has highlighted a gulf in expectations, especially between the younger more worldly constituents who are growing up with their city as an Alpha Global City, dynamic and forward looking, and an older more conservative electorate who still make up a large amount of a city that by world standards is still remarkably homogenous in terms of ethnicity and culture.
Battle to fight low wages
Park Won Soon, the bespectacled 55-year-old civic activist and environmental campaigner has called for a closing of the gap between the wealthy elite and the rest of society, many of whom work at appallingly low wages, certainly the lowest in the OECD. There are cases known personally to the writer for example, of factory workers who are paid barely $1 per hour.
Ahn Cheul Soo great entrepreneur
Yet for all of these developments, it is interesting to note that Park may not have been elected had his now backer, Ahn Cheul Soo also run in the contest, as he had previously intended. The 49-year-old computer entrepreneur, mega-rich and mega-smart, is an inspiration to many young people who have had such an impact in electing Park. Idealists on campus, according to one student, worship him as a hero. But why is he a hero? Why are these students idealists? It is less likely that they are inspired by the left-leaning European or American student ideals of bashing the bankers and taking to the streets, and more about his success in making lots of money in a successful career.
Warren Buffett students' hero
Indeed, when a Slovenian television programme came to South Korea in 2009, for all of the interest the veteran presenter showed in the food, culture, arts, and more, it was his minor incredulity at the high school students that he met and their interest in a particular individual that was most telling of the culture gap between, certainly the more left-leaning European nations of higher taxation, ingrained social welfare systems and their beloved nationalised health care systems. These students did not choose a pop star, soccer player or politician to idolise. Instead, they chose an octogenarian billionaire from Nebraska going by the name of Warren Buffett. Campus radicalism is not something high on the agenda of business and corporate management studies students across universities in Korea.
With this in mind, it is hard to see Park Won Soon as necessarily being able to impart his message, certainly on the national stage if he considered running for president at some stage in the future. Not only does he have to contend with a conservative older generation, with the likes of the older woman who has been going around hitting left-wing politicians, including Park Won Soo on the head and calling them communists, not being apart from their fears if not necessarily representing them, he also has to contend with a conservative hinterland beyond Seoul, and the youth ever more brought up to value material possessions and wealth acclamation as being a necessary goal on life's journey.
Interesting time ahead
It will certainly be an interesting time in Seoul; interesting to see whether Park Won Soo can take more people with him, and can really challenge the old order of vested interests and big business over the lives of the ordinary citizens of South Korea.
References
GaWC (2010) The World According to GaWC 2010, accessed 21.11.2011.
Kang, D. C. O. (2002) Crony Capitalism: corruption and development in South Korea and the Philippines, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kang, H. K. (2011) Turnout of 'Ahn wanabees' to decide election results, accessed 21.11.2011.
KWWA (2011) Raise the minimum wage from 4,320 won to 5,410 won. -- the Minimum Wage Raising Campaign by KWWA, accessed 21.11.2011.
Oliver, C. (2011) Korean bank chief commits suicide amid scandal, accessed 21.11.2011.
Park, S. O. (1986) Spatial Dynamics of Industrial Structure in Korea, Journal of Korean Geographic Society, 34, pp. 67 - 81.
Williamson, L. (2011) Seoul mayor Park Won-soon shakes up S Korean politics, accessed 21.11.2011.
Stephen Dennison - Stephen Dennison recently graduated with a Batchelors Degree in Human Geography. After living in a number of places in England, he is ...
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