South Korea’s liberal rulers unleash their inner authoritarians韓國的自由派統治者釋放了內心的威權主義者

Banyan
South Korea’s liberal rulers unleash their inner authoritarians

Used to dishing out the criticism, they seem unwilling to take it
AsiaAug 20th 2020 edition


Aug 20th 2020

韓國的自由派統治者釋放了內心的威權主義者

過去常常提出批評，他們似乎不願意接受

亞洲

2020年8月20日版

2020年8月20日

韓國有一個令人反感的強大歷史，它反對當時存在的各種權力。日本殖民者發現他們的臣民不守規矩。數十年來殘酷鎮壓其公民的民主渴望的本土軍事獨裁者最終屈服於廣泛的抗議活動。甚至連民主選舉產生的領導人也引起了公民社會的憤怒。現任總統文在寅Moon Jae-in的前任朴槿惠（Park Geun-hye）在數百萬韓國人上街譴責其政府猖厥的腐敗後於2017年被逐出辦公室。

朴槿惠的左翼繼任者發誓要做得更好。曾是維權人士和人權律師的文在寅先生（Moon）及其民政黨（Minjoo party）聲稱體現了民主運動的遺產。他們承諾要尊重席捲他們的抗議活動的精神。該國將變得更加平等。政府將更加開放，容忍異議和回應。

South korea has a proud history of noisy opposition to the powers that be. Japanese colonisers found their subjects unruly. Homegrown military dictators, who brutally suppressed their citizens’ democratic yearnings for decades, eventually yielded to widespread protests. Even democratically elected leaders have incurred the wrath of civil society. Park Geun-hye, the predecessor of Moon Jae-in, the current president, was chased out of office in 2017 after millions of South Koreans took to the streets to decry rampant corruption in her government.

Ms Park’s left-wing successors had vowed to do better. Mr Moon, a former activist and human-rights lawyer, and his Minjoo party claim to embody the legacy of the pro-democracy movement. They promised to honour the spirit of the protests that swept them to power. The country would become more egalitarian. The government would be more open, tolerant of dissent and responsive.