David Tizzard is a professor at Seoul Women’s University, holds a PhD in Korean Studies, and hosts the Korea Deconstructed podcast. He has lived and worked in Seoul for more than two decades. Reach him at datizzard@swu.ac.kr.
True leaders don't commit suicide
By David Tizzard
David Tizzard
By David A. Tizzard
South Korea is a thriving modern democracy and a relative beacon of openness and freedom in Northeast Asia. It stands proud among the far more oppressive Chinese Communist Party and the totalitarian rule of the Kim family in North Korea.
Yet its two main cities, Seoul and Busan, are both without a mayor for the first time in 70 years. The last time this occurred was due to the Korean War. This time, sadly, the problem is more internal: sexual assaults have forced both mayors to abandon their posts.
In Busan, Oh Keo-don stepped down three months ago amid allegations he had sexually harassed a female official. In Seoul, Park Won-soon chose to take his own life rather than see justice carried out after a former secretary filed a charge of sexual harassment against him.
With fellow Democratic Party member Ahn Hee-jung serving a three-and-a-half-year jail term for sexual assault, it is no wonder people online have begun referring to President Moon's ruling party in a clever play on words (in Korean) as the “party that gropes.” They are part of the “Do-dum-o-Man-jin-Dang.”
But while the country comes to the terms with the suicide of its once relatively popular Seoul Mayor, many English-language reports seem to have missed the mark rather dramatically.
On July 12, Emanuel Pastreich wrote a column in the Korea Times that focused on the life and political activities of the recently deceased Park Won-soon. It was a touching eulogy, primarily centered on the personal relationship and work experiences they had shared.
However, Mr. Pastreich saw fit to omit any reference to the charges of sexual harassment filed against the ex-mayor or even discuss the suicide itself. They seemingly did not fit the narrative that Mr. Pastreich had constructed and thus, rather than address them, he decided to avoid them altogether.
That, in my humble opinion, is getting Park Won-soon's suicide wrong. It avoided any genuine discussion of the circumstances and context.
In AFP News two days earlier, Claire Lee quoted Lee Soo-yeon, a researcher at the Korean Women's Development Institute, as saying, “Almost all South Korean men, whether they are politically conservative or liberal, are very traditional and patriarchal when it comes to gender issues.”
The statement was gleefully shared around the internet and those rightfully battling misogyny veered unfortunately towards misandry.
This attributing of blame in a monolith manner to an entire gender demographic seems rather lazy. It does not account for differences in terms of class, religion, political allegiance, age, and other such factors. Instead it uses broad strokes simply portray most Korean men simply as unable to be modern.
Such statements are divisive, problematic, and lack any sense of nuance. Yes, there are problems here in South Korea, and many of them do center on gender issues. There is a worrying prevalence of online and offline sex crimes as well as broader societal issues with gender inequality. They should and must be addressed.
To blame “nearly all Korean men” for them, however, does not seem the way forward. That, I believe, is getting Park Won-soon's suicide wrong. It focuses on stereotypes and ideology rather than creating constructive terms of discourse.
I shall not suggest that what I produce here will be flawless. Nevertheless, I would like to draw the conversation away from this latest “celebrity suicide” and discuss a different yet related problem: a lack of leadership in South Korea.
In South Korea, police cases are dropped whenever the accused dies. In that way, Park Won-soon was putting the issue to bed. He was taking justice into his own hands: stopping the authorities from investigating the situation correctly and preventing the women accusing him of inappropriate behavior from receiving closure and a fair trial before the law.
Yet I fear that in trying to save himself and protect his family and legacy, he stains the country and the population he was elected to serve.
Korea has a great many social problems. But I will suggest that these problems are not a reflection of the character or culture of the Korean people; there is not something special or magical in the water or air on the Korean Peninsula that makes the people act differently. Orientalism, whether self-driven or imposed from an external source, does not reflect the reality of what is experienced.
What we see instead, I think, is simply a failure of leadership. South Korean leaders from both sides of the political aisle continue to demonstrate unwillingness or an inability to rise to the task of responsibility. They have shrunk when faced with the challenge of leading by personal example. The hallmarks of leadership required have sadly far too often been absent.
The list of South Korean presidents reads more like a rap sheet: assassinations, imprisonments, suicide, exile, and so forth ― not the fate one would expect for those who preside over the most vaunted halls of power in the country.
Korean people deserve better leaders. They deserve leaders who will protect their interests, not leaders who seek to further their own positions, abuse the people they are positioned above, and then run away from this mortal coil at the first sign of any trouble.
The leaders who have ruled over South Korea not only create problems through their inability to act in accordance with the position and responsibilities they have been given, they also prevent discussion and focus on the more serious issues affecting the lives of regular citizens.
Suicide, sexual assault and depression are taking place every day in South Korea. They are at levels that nobody would really feel comfortable accepting. And yet the news becomes dominated by celebrities. Scandals rock the nation because of the elevated positions of those engaged in them, and then all the attention moves from where it deserves to be.
Park Won-soon chose to kill himself amid a wave of allegations. Why not forget about him and focus on the living; On those sweating and toiling to make the country a better place? They are men and women. Rich and poor. Conservative and liberal. Korean and foreign. And everything else in between.
Perhaps the country can find a way to put some of these people in power soon. I was only half-joking when I suggested the other week that Hyo-ri should be president because, for what it is worth, I do not think she would become embroiled in a sexual assault and then kill herself in a face-saving exercise designed to avoid responsibility.
That immediately makes her more qualified than the recently deceased mayor. And there are millions more like her. So can South Korea finally elect some leaders capable of rising to the challenge and working for the citizens?
David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University, where he teaches Korean Studies, and he is an adjunct professor at Hanyang University lecturing in World History and Political Science. He discusses the week's hottest issues on TBS eFM (101.3FM) on "Life Abroad" live every Thursday from 9:35-10 a.m.