Women, corruption, and Korea

• Published May 28, 2013 5:18 PM KST
• Updated May 28, 2013 5:18 PM KST

By Bernard Rowan

Over the past several weeks, we have seen the president of Korea offer an apology for the embarrassment and actions of her press spokesperson during a recent official visit to the United States.

We witnessed another disturbing pronunciation of recurring idiocy regarding the injustice against comfort women. And Bill Gates recently faced criticism for his inappropriate manner of greeting President Park Geun-hye.

A lot of concern was occasioned in the public mind of South Koreans about these incidents. The public’s reaction invites reexamination and a restatement of Korean ideals about gender and equal treatment in the public sphere. It also should inspire the work of the Park government at the helm of an advancing society to update its gender relations culture and codes.

Advanced nations, including South Korea and the United States, must consider anew their attitude toward the unethical treatment of women by those in power, beginning with those entrusted with public power. South Korea may fruitfully consider this area of ethical and cultural import in light of her evolving Confucian tradition, the influence of democracy, and the growing power of Korean women.

What is it to treat another person with or on the basis of corruption? Arguably, it is when someone through his or her thoughts, words, and deeds objectifies another for one’s own purposes. Corruption occurs when one treats another merely as a means to one’s ends and implies that another person lacks the personhood or humanity one keeps or claims or treats oneself as possessing. In Confucian thinking, it is improper to scapegoat others. Scapegoating extends to objectifying others through the mechanisms of displacement and projection.

Corrupt behavior can happen in what might be called a normal day and in the normal habits and actions of otherwise lauded and commendable public servants and corporate leaders and their subordinates. In fact, we all have room to share in corruption, in its understanding and incidence, and in its deconstruction and reduction. What the ancient Greeks termed as describing the hoi polloi or democratic culture in a pejorative sense actually is a part of human nature, other things being equal.

Bill Gates’ gesture, or rather improper gesture, of greeting has been condemned as a sign of cultural insensitivity and ignorance, or arrogance. It might better be analyzed as a symbol of gender privilege. For a male leader of a corporation more powerful than many nations to address a female leader of one of the world’s more powerful nations so casually may just have been meant as a sign of friendliness, but its representation, appearance and reception point to a double standard.

More seriously, the continued efforts of too, too many Japanese officials, most recently the mayor of Osaka, to justify or excuse away the ritual rape and abuse of comfort women in World War II, is a more advanced sign of corruption. It works to retard the ongoing historical project to identify, analyze and understand the degradation of women, and actions to reduce and end it. The mayor of Osaka accurately reflects the ingrained understanding of too many men and women that privileged treatment of women includes the right to abuse them in their persons, property, and rights. No amount of national pride should be marshaled to excuse such behavior.

Yoon Chang-jung’s actions in Washington, D.C., if true, are another pathetic example of corruption. Public officials representing the highest national leaders using high profile state visits as opportunities to act on inner desires and against the free will of others are the stuff of tabloids. On the other hand, they are very much part of what South Korean government and society today need to change ― and not just in the public sector.

Too many men in the world treat official trips and meetings as excuses to enjoy themselves with women in unguarded moments. But times are changing. While it seems that Pat Robertson would have many men view themselves as genetically programmed to cheat on their wives, or to be promiscuous, there’s plenty of evidence that behavior and habit matter in societies. We do have the capacity to learn and grow, even us men.

While the press has focused on what Yoon may have done, and what was done and not done by other officials who knew or came to know what Yoon is said to have done himself, I found it prudent that Park offered an apology to the nation. Even though it wasn’t her fault, Park’s action can be viewed as a means of restoring the intention to operate with public trust and the intention to guide Korea forward to a better era of gender relations.

That is if the impulse behind the apology prompts more sustained action by her government.

Bernard Rowan is director of assessment and program quality, professor of political science and faculty athletics representative at Chicago State University, where he has taught for 20 years. His email address is browan10@yahoo.com

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