How do Korean voters keep getting stuck with crooks? What is going on with the Grand National Party nominations right now is a good illustration (my Korea Times piece):
The [General Assembly nomination] impasse was resolved last week when the sides agreed that politicians who were convicted, but not sentenced to prison, could run for office under the GNP banner. That is good news for Kim, who was only forced to pay a fine. In a grand compromise, Park’s supporters convicted of bribery and members of the Lee Myung-bak faction convicted of election law violations will both be allowed to run for office…
Once the screening committee selects Kim, he is as good as elected since he represents Busan, in the heart of GNP country. Other important candidates who had been convicted of corruption-related crimes will similarly be able to find safe havens in secure districts or high in the party’s proportional representation list.
So the only way for voters to voice their displeasure at the GNP’s continued coddling of the corrupt is to punish the party as a whole on April 9.
Alas, none of the other parties seem to be in any shape to give voters that option.
Of course, there are crooks all around, but the GNP seems determined to keep its edge in the crooked politician department.
5 Comments
Koreans outside of Seoul still vote by and large for regional parties.
Why do you think all the crooks are representing either Kyong Sang or Jolla?
Gong chun in Kyong Sang for Han Nara? Automatic Gold Gook Hwae badge.
Gong chun in Jolla for what seems to be yet a new Min Joo Dang? Automatic Gold Gook Hwae badge.
Nobody complains down there. East or West.
arguably, true democracy is only practiced in Seoul and Choong Chung Do.
Hey, they’re the only ones who even show a variation in party support.
This is precisely why voters voted for KDJ and Roh and what will undoubtedly sink Han-nara five years from now when they have failed — once again — to re-invent themselves. Rather than use this opportunity to plot a new course, they seem to have only plots to hatch.
#3, sounds like politics pretty much everywhere else too. Really calls to mind the demise of the Tories and associated “sleaze” in the nineties followed by Labour’s ten year descent to the same place.
That is insanely frustrating… How are these people getting re-elected??