S. Korean Politics Gets Rude Awakening

A South Korean civic organization’s blacklist of 164 candidates in April elections has spurred a legal and political showdown that analysts say could fundamentally alter the face of this country’s young democracy.

When U.S. nonprofit groups cite candidates they dislike, few take notice. But a citizens movement launched here this month to expand voter oversight, fight corruption and, in effect, “throw the bums out” has rudely awakened the cozy world of South Korean politics.

“This is one of the most interesting developments in the history of government,” the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said of the unprecedented third-party challenge to the status quo.

Politicians here have lashed back, threatening lawsuits and bad-mouthing their accusers. Some of their efforts were rewarded last week when the grass-roots campaign was ruled illegal.

But civic groups have a huge ally in their struggle. South Korean citizens, long disenchanted by a string of gambling, embezzlement and payoff scandals, have lined up solidly behind the little guys. And in a rapid reversal, political parties by midweek agreed in principle to change the law and give the groups more political rights.

“I’m all for it,” said Lee Kwan Soo, a 44-year-old Seoul taxi driver. “It will finally make the politicians think twice before they take bribes or abuse their power.”

The blacklist published by the Citizens Coalition for Economic Justice, or CCEJ, one of South Korea’s best-known civic organizations, included 49 politicians accused or convicted of taking bribes. Dozens more allegedly gambled habitually in their National Assembly offices, got into fistfights on the assembly floor or took lavish shopping and golf trips abroad on taxpayer money.

That list, released just as South Korea’s three major parties were assembling their slates for the April 13 National Assembly election, was just the first salvo. A second, more focused list being assembled by a coalition of several hundred women’s, religious, political, farm and environmental organizations and set for release Monday, is to target politicians branded as “incompetent, corrupt and lazy.” And smaller groups have created their own halls of shame on Web sites.

Local civic organizations have been flexing their muscles in other ways as well. When political parties recently issued a disappointing political reform package after 13 months of dithering, swift condemnation by civic groups forced a return to the drawing board. Outdoor rallies and petition drives have swelled their support. And 800 groups threatened Wednesday to release the names of politicians, well-connected businessmen and entertainers whose sons were exempted from military service.

Long insulated from such challenges, many politicians’ first instinct was to hit back. The conservative opposition Grand National Party accused civic groups of “political terrorism” and called on public prosecutors to file suits against what it termed “illegal sniping.” Other elected officials accused the activists of bias and shoddy research and of convicting people through the media before they received fair trials.

Even supporters concede that the civic groups may have gone too far. One politician widely recognized for his conscientious record, for example, was blacklisted for suggesting that President Kim Dae Jung should have his mouth bound by an industrial sewing machine for lying. “Why should I be included?” asked Seoul Assembly member Kim Hong Shin. “You can’t even criticize the president?”

CCEJ officials say they have removed three people from their list in response to the criticism. “We believe this list could be the start of real political reform in Korea,” said Lee Seog Yeon, the group’s secretary-general. “But we’ve learned from this process as well.”

Despite some minor victories, however, even the most hard-line politicians soon recognized the public groundswell: A poll of 1,000 South Korean voters found 81.2% in favor of the blacklist. Another found that 77.4% want wholesale change in the April elections. Web sites detailing the accusations have been clogged, and independent college professors and the national bar association have sided with the civic groups.

And the groups see as promising the agreement by political parties to end a blanket ban on civic group participation in elections--enshrined in the controversial Article 87 of Korea’s national election law--although they also plan to keep up the pressure for fear of backsliding. Political parties also say they will consider the blacklists in naming new candidates for the April ballot.

President Kim--who needs to do well in April to further his economic and foreign policy agenda--was among the first to call for an end to the controversial Article 87. Kim has championed political reform since he took power in early 1998, but recent scandals have hurt him. His environment minister quit in May after being accused of accepting cash from a South Korean businessman. And his government has been dragged down by the “furgate” ruckus involving allegations that the wife of a jailed businessman tried to lobby Cabinet members’ wives with expensive clothes.

Political reform has lagged behind economic reform in South Korea, and civic groups are in many ways now filling a vacuum left by others. Reformist politicians are relatively rare because most political funding still comes from large business groups. And police, prosecutors, judges and the mass media have not been independent enough to push a reform agenda, analysts say.

South Korea is not alone in its efforts to redefine the role of civic organizations. In the past decade, nonprofit groups have become increasingly influential from Seoul to Slovenia to San Diego, using the Internet and good governance standards set by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to push for change, said Ann Florini, a civic society expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

“If you live in an integrated world, you need integrated rules,” she said. “Civic society has become a big player in that process.”

It remains to be seen how much impact the civic groups will have on the April election, and a system reportedly as riddled with funny money as is South Korea’s cannot be expected to change overnight.

Out of the 19 leading exporters ranked on the Bribe Payers Index, published by the Washington-based watchdog Transparency International, South Korea is 18th worst, just ahead of China.

“We understand that we can’t survive or compete in international society as long as our system is based on corruption and bribery,” said Park Jai Chang, political science professor at Sook Myung Women’s University. “But it’s something like air for Koreans. It’s very difficult to eradicate.”

If the civic groups’ efforts prevail and do not spur divisiveness, analysts say, the movement could lead to higher ethical standards, better candidates and a more open political process in Korea.

“Hopefully, this will help us shift away from elite rule by a few,” 44-year-old office worker Kim In Sik said, drawing on his cigarette as he ate lunch. “Personally, if I were a ruler with almighty power, I’d throw half our politicians in the Pacific.”

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Magnier was recently on assignment in Seoul.