To his credit, Kim Young-sam refused to consider Lee Hoi-chang's proposal of a release for the two mass murderers before the election was held on the grounds this would be seen as a cynical vote-catching ploy on behalf of the ruling camp.
A small test of Kim Dae-jung's freedom for independent political action would be the pardoning of left wing political prisoners, following on the release of Chun and Rho in the name of "national reconciliation",
This issue was raised by Kim Daejung during the election, during a television interview in Kwangju. At the time Kim stated that he would pardon "prisoners of conscience who, being nonCommunists, were arrested because of their love of the nation"
During the actual campaign, he was forced to backtrack somewhat by the Grand National Party's attacks on him as a closet Communist and the Justice Ministry's denial that Korea has any prisoners of conscience, despite the evidence put forward by Amnesty International. Kim pardoned some criminals at Christmas; it would appear that no political prisoners were set free at the same time.
Nevertheless, the election was a further sign of Korea's relative democratisation, For the first time in Korean history, the public saw three televised presidential debates (and one minor candidate debate featuring trade union leader Kwon Young-gil).
These mediatised debates replaced the mass public rallies which dominated previous election campaigns. Those campaigns were notorious for the large sums of money which were handed out to participants by rally organisers. In contrast, the money distributed this time around appears to have gone almost entirely to accountable sources. What now?
The Grand National Party now looks set for a batch of defections to Kim Dae-jung's National Congress for New Politics. The futher decline of this highly opportunist regional grouping of career politicians should be welcomed. Rhee In-je is threatened with a similar fate overtaking his organisation, especially given its lack of funds.
The Washington Post suggested in a recent editorial that Kim Dae-jung will
The split in the President Kim Young-sam became a liability to the ruling camp sometime between the January 1997 General Strike and November's IMF bailout, writes Terry Lawless
Kim had tried to rule in the manner of an incorruptible Confucian sage from the Chosun Dynasty. But a whole series of money scandals and the mounting tide of corporate bankruptcies robbed him of any claims either of breaking with the bad past of political corruption or of creating a bright future of global competitiveness. The conviction and imprisonment of his second son, Kim Youngchul, on bribery charges following the bankruptcy of the Hanbo business group summed up Kim's limitations in both endeavours.
The fate of Hanbo was also a distant early warning of the much wider problems that the chaebols were soon to encounter. When Hanbo failed in January 1997, it owed debts 16 times higher than its net capital worth. Through a typically over-optimistic assessment of markets and growth potential and the persuasive power of the President's son in the halls of lending institutions, Hanbo have to preside over a National Assembly majority hostile to his interests, but this view results from the mistaken application of western party political norms to the different Korean situation.
Kwon Young-gil suggested in a recent interview with the Korean language progressive monthly Mal that organisations like the Grand National Party should not be honoured with the title "party" in the first place.
These organisations lack the most elementary ot programs; and never outlast the deteat, detection or imprisonment of a leading personality. This explains why figures seemingly from the right and left of the Korean political spectrum can unite with a minimum of ideological fuss.
The slow and difficult formation of a workers' party based on the trade unions seems to be the only way of overcoming this confused situation. * President-elect Kim Dae-jung, during a television debate with rival candidates Lee Hoi-chang and Rhee In-je ruling camp expected to enter the economic big league virtually overnight.
When it crashed, its reverberations were felt across the entire economy. It soon became apparent that such practices were not confined to Hanbo, and the banks began to grow nervous about the ability of businesses to pay back their huge short term loans. The collapse of Kia, the eighth largest chaebols in August, was proof that the entire economy had entered into protracted crisis. The "unholy alliance"
Kim Young-sam's New Korea Party was the result of an earlier unholy alliance in 1990 which brought together his Pusan-based organisation with that of the South-Easterner forces of Rho Taewoo and Chun Doo-hwan. Formerly know as the Democratic Liberal Party, it was renamed the New Korea Party in late 1995, after Chun and Rho had been arrested. The renaming of the organisation was part of the attempt to remake Korean politics known as "settling accounts with history" which led to the 1995 trials of Chun and Rho on charges of mutiny and massacre.
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* South Korea
There was a large element of opportunism involved in these trials since it was the means by which Kim Youngsam informed the South-Easterner forces that the balance of power had decisively shifted against them. It was also an intimidation tactic, threatening anyone who might wish to reveal the details of Rho's financing of Kim Youngsam's successful presidential campaign in 1992. At the same time, it ought to be seen retrospectively as a genuine limited attempt to rewrite the bourgeois rules of the game in order to rule out the violent overthrow of the constitutional order by the Army
The verdict on Kwangju, on the other hand, was muffled; the bourgeoisie indicating that the violent suppression of pro-democracy movements is not ruled out in the future. Factionalism continued
The shift in the balance of power inside the New Korea Party did not mean that the two basic factions had disappeared. On the contrary, they were alive and well and battling over who to nominate as their presidential candidate. In the end, this became a two-man race between the South-Eastern backed Lee Hoi-chang, a millionaire supreme court judge from the Chun Doo-hwan era, and Rhee In-je, the former governor of Kyonggi province, the favourite of Kim Young-sam's faction. After initially giving Lee support by nominating him as party chair a year before the election, Kim chose to stay neutral during the actual nomination contest.
The election of the presidential candidate by a vote of the membership was a first for the ruling camp. Lee was duly nominated, but the result was acrimonious. The division in the party opened to a chasm when it was revealed that Lee's two sons had evaded compulsory military service by being declared underweight. Overnight, Lee's popularity dropped like a stone; and the NKP appeared to be heading for certain defeat. It was at this point that Rhee decided to break with the NKP and run against Lee, despite having pledged to honour the outcome of the vote.
At more or less the same time, the prosecution initiated and then just as suddenly dropped charges against Kim Dae-jung over the existence of a secret political slush fund. Lee decided that Kim Young-sam was personally responsible, and he called on Kim to leave the New Korea Party! Kim did so, and Lee then renamed his South-Easterner aliance the Grand National Party. From this point on, Lee's campaign began to regain momentum. However, his new found popularity was not enough to overcome the early lead Kim Dae-jung had already secured. In the end, Lee managed to obtain more or less the same percentage from the same segment of hard-line voters as Rho Tae-woo in 1987; the presence of Rhee In-je probably benefited Kim, especially in the second largest constituency, Kyonggi province. No nostalgia for authoritarian past
Contrary to some world media reports, there is no popular nostalgia for authoritarianism in Korea. There has been a sustained but small campaign waged by some in the ruling camp on behalf of President Park, and weekly attendance at his graveside by old folks has risen a little bit. This is not cause for alarm. Indeed, this nostalgia seems primarily to be taking the form of people attempting to sell fairly unpopular Park memorabilia to make some money.
There is no nostalgia at all for the rule of Rho Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan, who are seen as vicious, unimaginative and stupid. Most adults and some university students can still remember the just struggle against the authoritarian regime. Even Lee Hoi-chang emphasised his democratic credentials in holding up the rule of law against arbitrary military government during the election campaign. And one battalion commander now faces a heavy prison sentence for interfering in politics, after issuing a statement denouncing Lee for his sons' evasion of military service. *
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIoN
Lean Production: A Capitalist Utopia?
Tony Smith
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INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ReSEARCH AND EDucATIoN
The Chinese Revolution and the Shaping of the Maoist Outlook
Pierre Rousset
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International Viewpoint #297