Barred from local elections

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Michael Breen

Barred from local elections

Posted : 2010-05-20 19:26

Updated : 2010-05-20 19:26

By Michael Breen

As the campaign for the June 2 local elections moves into top gear, the National Election Commission in Seoul announced yesterday that Kim Jong-il is not eligible to run for re-election as the Governor of the Rebel-Held Territories (RHT).

Kim had asked the Commission for a special exemption from the law to allow him to try for an unprecedented fourth term. The Commission was expected to agree as the Rebel-Held Territories, a vast area, some of which is still unexplored, operate with more self-autonomy than Korea's other provinces.

But it rejected the petition after an anonymous call from the Blue House.

The decision removes President Lee Myung-bak's fiercest critic from the election, which is being seen as a mid-term evaluation of his performance.

But it has created political chaos in the northern region, where all viable alternative candidates are in prison.

Kim has won the last three elections in the Rebel-Held Territories with an impressive 100 percent of the vote each time.

In making its application for an exemption, Kim's Labor Party had submitted a petition signed by the entire population to back its argument that the northern part of Korea would collapse without its ``Dear Leader," as Kim is affectionately called.

The election authorities rejected the argument saying that Kim had already served the legal limit of three terms.

``The Commission is tasked with making decisions according to the existing law. Given this, the argument that the citizens of the RHT want the current governor to run again has no standing in law," the Commission said in a statement.

Speaking during on-the-spot guidance at a chicken farm outside Sariwon, Kim appeared unfazed, and characteristically put the people's interest above his own. ``Have you had lunch?" he asked reporters.

After being assured that they had eaten, he spoke for three hours about the concept of democracy and chicken farming. ``Man is the master of his destiny," he said, quoting from one of his father Kim Il-sung's ghost-written books on the Juche (self-reliance) philosophy. ``Woman, too. But what about chicken? Is he master of his destiny? I don't think so. But I'm sure if they could speak they would say they want to be free." To make his point, Kim imitated a chicken and all the reporters laughed with warm hearts.

``Who doesn't? What chicken would not want to run free and live in the woods? But if that were allowed, what would the heroic farm workers do? How would they gather eggs? So, what is democracy?"

``Regular free and fair elections?" one reporter asked.

``Well, what if those free and fair elections deliver a result that is bad? What if free and fair elections deliver a victory for the Grand National Party and are interpreted as a thumbs-up for MB Lee? People may think that is good. But is it? What if a democratic leader came and took away all your eggs and put them in another basket?''

``Leaders are like farmers," he continued. ``When there is a risk that voters may elect leaders who are bad for them, true believers in what is democratically best for the people must act, even at the risk of being temporarily unpopular."

Analysts interpreted Kim's remarks to mean that his Labor Party would field Kim as a ``shadow" candidate and call on voters to write his name on the ballot. Under provincial regulations, if 90 percent of voters oblige, Kim will be able to extend his current term for sufficient time for the law to be changed. Labor Party sources say that teams of officials are already signing the ballots so that voters will not have to go to the trouble of actually writing Kim's name on them on election day.

There is a precedent for such an unlikely turn of events. In the first gubernatorial election in the RHT in 1995, when local autonomy was introduced nationwide, there were no names on the ballot paper. Incredibly, 100 percent of voters wrote the name of Kim Il-sung, even though he had died the year before. Through this technicality, he won.

Kim Jong-il served out that term in his father's place and then went on to win three elections himself. In each case, there were no alternative candidates.

The analysts say that Kim is bound to win unless the voter turnout is under the legal limit of 50 percent. In the last election in the RHT, it was only 65 percent as many people were still too weak to get to the polls due to hunger, a direct result of Kim's food distribution policies.

Michael Breen is an author, former foreign correspondent and the chairman of Insight Communications, a public relations consulting company. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.