Clinton, Park - coming and going

By Stephen Costello

You really can’t make this stuff up. Who could have predicted that the political systems in the U.S. and Korea would face near-implosion at almost exactly the same moment? The public reactions in both places, while completely different, may rekindle some of the democratic instincts that have been forgotten - or were purposely undermined - in the years leading up to this season of crisis and opportunity.

A young man at the massive demonstration along Sejongno in Seoul on Saturday showed great understanding. “We made a mistake voting for Park,” he said. “Now we will have to do better.” One can’t help feel a bit of jealousy at the peaceful and organized behavior of Koreans these days. Powerful demonstrations should be a valued Korean export, alongside kimchi and Psy.

In the U.S., lines of eager voters are forming, often in a festive atmosphere, all across the country. Despite efforts to illegally suppress or discount votes, large numbers are turning out. The 2016 election has revealed levels of economic despair and civic disinterest that could cripple the country. How people react in this week’s vote will focus the next president’s attention on those issues with unprecedented clarity.

I’ll take a chance and assume that Hillary Clinton will be elected President on Tuesday. It’s a bit jarring for Americans to imagine her in office, if only because, after Barack Obama, she is so “not cool.” But that may be one of her endearing qualities. It would be nice to trade away some of that cool in exchange for greater competence and effective use of the tools of government in Clinton’s hands. Such effectiveness would mean, for instance, hiring the best, experienced people, listening to them and giving them the authority to do their jobs. In U.S. policy toward Northeast Asia, that would help. A serious and rigorous policy review would be the place to start.

And make no mistake: aside from all the other issues, it has been the prospect that governance would become almost impossible if Donald Trump were elected that scares so many people here. His candidacy and Park Geun-hye’s presidency both show what can happen when voters make mistakes and people unprepared to lead modern democracies take power.

Despite all the talk about cults and shamans surrounding Park Geun-hye, it is the staggering lack of competence and effective government that are at the heart of public anger now spilling into the streets. Demonstrations on this scale do not form out of the blue. Rather, they spring directly from the last of four long years of terrible presidential leadership. When the presidency of Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013) is taken into account, along with aspects of Roh Moo Hyun’s term (2003-2008), the public has put up with 14 years of often backward-looking and divisive ideological uses of government power. No wonder they’re fed up.

But most fundamentally, the conservative Lee and Park terms were years when the government decisively turned away from Korea's democratic strengths and its necessary, post-authoritarian creation and rooting of civic and civil habits and institutions. Because of the Choi Soon-sil scandal, a healing process will have to begin now, a year early, with the Assembly asserting its full power and trying to take up many of the responsibilities of policy-making. That process is probably a better one than Park’s resignation or impeachment. So far there do not seem to be legal grounds for her early departure.

At the end of 2016 we may have Hillary Clinton preparing to take on the task of making the broken U.S. system work again while enhancing its policy-making abilities toward Northeast Asia. At the same time, Park Geun-hye has admitted her government is broken, and will be preparing to share power with the Assembly in the first steps toward putting a modern Korean government back together.

Stephen Costello is a producer of AsiaEast, a web and broadcast-based policy roundtable focused on security, development and politics in Northeast Asia. He writes from Washington, D.C. He can be reached at scost55@gmail.com.