Whispers of 99 percent

By Oh Young-jin

Nowadays, the mother of all worldly troubles is the struggle between the top 1 percent and the remaining 99 percent. Ordinary Brits caught the ruling class by surprise and gave them a boot in the butt through a revolution at the ballot box with the exit from the European Union. Donald Trump, now U.S. Republican presidential nominee, has thrived on grassroots discontent. In Korea, the disconnect is the worst, with all signs from the bottom ignored by those at the top. Alas, they may be in for a major jolt.

Finding a cure for this social malaise may need three steps ― prognosis, diagnosis and a bit of a clinic checkup.

As for prognosis, if not attended, this standoff between the elites and the ordinary could blow up in a major class struggle. In other words, it is tantamount to lifting a string of garlic from the neck of Karl Marx to bring the father of mass murderers ― Lenin, Stalin and Ceausescu ― back to life. More graphically, the world would see individual implosions across nation states ― through the clash of classes. An apocalyptic end to representative democracy can be avoided if a solution can be found, thereby making the prognosis unnecessary.

Let’s take the pulse of the situation and look at why the two sides can’t communicate. Is it the 1 percent’s blame, being drenched in their sense of privilege and ignoring the less privileged because they learn from experience that they can get away with anything? Or is the 99 percent so busy living from hand to mouth that they fail to have their say heard by the elitists?

There can be many explanations but mine is about a handicap afflicting each party. For the elite, they have been so accustomed to speaking or, metaphorically speaking, monopolizing the microphone in a karaoke, that they have lost their hearing ability. In contrast, the 99 percent has listened all the time, so they don’t even know whether they can speak.

The solution is for the 1 percent to keep its collective mouth shut, while the ordinary should speak out at the top of their lungs. The advantage of this approach is to have both parties stop blaming each other for all things that have gone haywire and collectively come up with a solution for their common peace and prosperity.

But it would not be easy for both parties to adapt to this role-playing. At the start, stage fright might scare the 99 percent, so what they say can sound like whispers and the 1 percent cannot understand these whispers. I can interpret some of what they are saying for the 1 percent. One caveat is that there is no fixed standard by which the two parties are defined, so you might feel some of the cast below don’t belong in the category or, for that matter, some of the contents.

For North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un: Grow up! You are 33 years old and should be independent. You are still living in the shadows of your father. Your father was not well when he told you to make the impoverished country a nuclear state. Question the adults’ words, because they don’t know everything. Once you pass puberty, you should think about what is the best for you. Missiles are not fireworks and they are expensive. You may want bragging rights from nuclear weapons, but they are as obsolete as trash cans in terms of security guarantees because you won’t use them or risk the annihilation of yourself, your family and the entire country. And you can’t eat them or pick your teeth with them. And lose some weight.

For Woo Byung-woo, President Park Geun-hye’s senior secretary for civil affairs, who is besieged by allegations of corruption but protected by his boss:

You are the worst kind of the 1 percent that we love to hate. You take us for fools by insisting you are innocent. Your kid got an easy job in the lieu of military service. Our kids go to the frontline and lose legs on North Korean mines or spill their guts fighting “mano a mano” with North Korean patrol boats in the West Sea. You sounded as if you expected a public accolade for calling your son from the United States to serve the country. Our children get student loans, do part-time work to pay their way through college and end up repaying the loans for much of the rest of their lives. For that, they have to postpone marriage or forgo it completely. For that deal on your parents-in-law’s prime property with Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju, you, as the top presidential aide, should know that you were already guilty when the report came out. If you feel it unfair, stop hiding behind your boss’ skirt and face the charges like a man.

For Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju, who bribed senior prosecutor Jin Kyung-jun:

You are the second-worst kind of the top 1 percent. You, at 50, are supposed to be a new-generation entrepreneur but you are more corrupt than chaebol in our era of development dictatorship. You also ratted on Jin to avoid a trip to jail. Not that Jin deserves any sympathy. If this country has another tumble on the rankings of Transparency International, you are responsible and should forfeit your wealth. You are the reason why the new anti-corruption law should be put into practice. You also should compensate for the losses of fruit growers, who claim they stand to go under, if the Kim Young-ran law is enacted.

For President Park: Please!

On second thoughts, I am not sure whether this is what the 99 percent is whispering because they are so many and their voices come at the same time. Give my interpretation a margin of error of 10 percent either way.

Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times’ chief editorial writer. Contact him at foolsdie5@ktimes.com and foolsdie@gmail.com.