The
growth trajectory of the Korean economy has been the envy of most developing
countries around the world. The story of poverty to riches, of hunger to
plentiful, of a country that has moved from being one of the biggest aid recipients
to an aid donor and a member of the ‘prestigious’ OECD-DAC is one that many
developing countries seek to emulate. The country is today at the forefront of
technological advancement, environmental protection and healthcare services.
However, the scandals that have engulfed Korea in recent months have exposed
serious problems in the building blocks of the country; the curse of
authoritarian development.
As a
graduate student a few years ago, I had passionate and in-depth discussions with
my colleagues and professors on which form of government was most appropriate
for most developing countries as they strived to achieve economic growth and
development. For most of us- most of who were from developing countries- we
thought a ‘benevolent dictatorship’, or authoritarian development was the right
path towards rapid economic growth. Why have a divided country and waste vast
amount of resources on multi-party democratic reforms when the entire country
needed to head in the same direction and dedicate all available resources
towards achieving economic growth. Participation rates in most elections were
very low, and in most countries long serving presidents were always almost
certain to win. The democratic process seemed like a huge waste of national
resources. It was hard to hear some of my Korean professors and friends
criticize the regime of president Park JungHee, considering he oversaw the
rapid economic growth of the country.
In
hindsight, l now realize just how wrong l was. That president Park had a vision
for this country, that he set the path for Korean economic growth and pushed
forward to achieve that objective against adversity from home and abroad
remains a profound achievement. This country owes him gratitude, as do l and
many others who have benefited from the hard work and kindness of the Korean
government and people. However, the policies adopted during his presidency and
those of subsequent leaders have had a rather negative long-term effect on the
country. The political and institutional development was stifled along with
dissent, and that has had serious repercussions on the progress of the country.
Consider
the following extract from a write up:
“…It does not require much effort to
speculate how it had been possible to raise black money of such a astronomical
figure. The vast majority of the amount, as it has been revealed, came from
businessmen as extortion payments to get around heavy government regulations or
to receive contracts for government projects.”
“… Assembly is for the most part failing in
its duty to pass legislation whose priority is to contribute to the public
interest and to rigorously exercise its power of legislative review to prevent
the deviant behavior of the executive branch.”
“…The role of the judiciary is to restrain
the deviation of these government branches. However, a huge chasm separates the
current state of the judiciary and the public’s expectation”
If
you’re thinking this is a recent publication on the state of events for the
past month in Korea, you’re wrong. This is an extract from a paper by Professor
IIjoong Kim in November of 1995 on
the scandal that rocked South Korea after the discovery of the $650 million
slush-fund by former president Roh Tae-woo. Twenty-one years later, Korea is
faced with another scandal of the same nature, except this time the reputation
of the nation that performed ‘the miracle on the Han’ is at risk. We pose the
question: why have the regulations enacted in the aftermath of that scandal,
subsequent scandals, and administrations been so ineffective? The situation
brings to mind the 1993 hollywood movie “GroundHog Day” starring Bill Murray. It’s
like waking up to the same day all the time. In part two, we discuss just how
it all went wrong.
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