Dogs, horses and Queen Min

By Jason Lim

Recently, Na Hyang-wook, a high-ranking Ministry of Education official told reporters of the progressive Kyunghyang Daily Newspaper that the general public could be regarded as “dogs and pigs,” and that the government’s job was to ensure that they only be “fed and kept alive.” He defined the general public as the 99 percent.

He also called for a stricter caste system in Korea that people should accept since equality is nothing but an unattainable illusion. To support his position, he pointed to the U.S. where the blacks and Hispanics have no political ambitions and no interest in climbing the socioeconomic ladder. “All (U.S.) senators and representatives have to do is to provide a means for survival for such people in the U.S.,” he was quoted as saying.

Not sure which U.S. he’s talking about since the last time I checked, the U.S. had a sitting African American president, and two Hispanics were leading candidates for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination only a few months ago.

As if that wasn’t enough, he also called those who say that they can relate to the death of the 19-year old contract worker who was killed by an oncoming train in Guui Station after getting stuck in the screen door he was trying to repair hypocrites. The victim had become synonymous with the poor conditions and abuses that the disempowered and disenfranchised segment of the population has to face every day to survive.

When asked how he would have felt if the victim had been his own child, he replied by saying that he couldn’t imagine such a scenario because it was impossible that his child would work as a contract repair serviceman. He concluded his remarks by reiterating that a caste system-based society was more “practical” than one defined by social mobility.

After his remarks were published, the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan, and Na was suspended and eventually fired from public service. Good riddance. While anyone has the right to think anything, a high-ranking government official voicing such antidemocratic thoughts in front of reporters deserves to be fired for sheer stupidity, even if it was during a friendly meet-and-greet over dinner.

Having worked in Korea, however, I can totally see how such a person could feel safe and comfortable enough to mouth off ridiculous and shocking statements. I am sure that he has said similar things before to his own subordinates, who had no choice but enthusiastically agree and pay homage to the courage of their boss’ intellectual honesty. In the rigid, position-based hierarchy that defines the Korean workplace culture, especially a government bureaucracy, Na would not have been challenged for his remarks ― in fact, he would have enjoyed a captured audience who would have had to serve as a positive echo chamber for his ego.

No wonder Na was advocating for a caste system. The bureaucracy that he grew up in is, in effect, a positional caste system if which the lower rungs have to kowtow to the whims of the upper class. Na’s only mistake was forgetting who his audience was.

Strangely enough, Na’s case reminded me of Queen Min. Many years ago, I remember doing a little research into her life after seeing the famous musical named after her, so filled with ethnic pride and nationalistic curiosity at finding out how the Imperial Japanese so wronged us. I also remember feeling disappointed and then disillusioned at discovering that Queen Min and the rest of the ruling aristocracy exhibited no interest in improving the lives of the people but was only occupied with internal bickering and court intrigue. The 99 percent only existed as props to the lives of the Yangban aristocracy.

In that sense, I am not totally unsympathetic to Na’s plight. After all, he is a product of his own culture and history. Na was voicing a deeply-held elitist, patriarchal, and patronizing current in Korean society that assumes everyday people need to be “taken care of” by the ruling elite for their own good. People need to be labeled, segmented, and put into their own boxes as a practical matter for the stability and health of the larger society. “Know your place,” they would say. “For your own good.”

This cultural bias is still alive and well. Even through the great upheavals that Korea went through in the 20th century, old cultural habits die hard. In capitalistic South Korea today, money now defines the boundaries of aristocracy vs. commoners; but the new caste boundaries are just as rigid and fiercely defended as in the Joseon Kingdom. Na just happened to voice it at the wrong place and time. Even in the communist North Korea, a caste system has been recreated based on “songbun,” your family’s history of loyalty to the “revolution.” Two different methodologies have been used to recreate a commonly shared cultural pattern of ingrained elitism that leads to formal or informal caste systems.

Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. Reach him at jasonlim@msn.com, facebook. com/jasonlimkoreatimes or @jasonlim2012.