Twenty-eight years ago today, the democracy movement in Korea entered a new stage as citizens joined students in demanding a direct presidential election that year. Until then, students led protests that rarely made their way outside university campuses. Student leaders and dissidents were routinely arrested and tortured. Books were banned, and censorship of the media was strict. Korea was, in short, a full-on dictatorship.
The massive demonstrations arose to protest the nomination of Roh Tae-woo as the ruling party’s candidate for the presidential election scheduled for December. The nomination was taken as a sign that the government of Chun Doo-hwan had rejected calls for a direct election. Under the 1972 Yusin Constitution, which was still in effect at the time, an electoral college that could be influenced easily by the regime had the power to choose the president.
Without knowing many details of Korean politics, I made plans to meet a friend in Myeong-dong that afternoon. After spending time in a caf, we could detect tear gas in the air. As we walked toward the bus, we saw small groups of adults, some of them necktie-clad office workers, raising their fists and chanting “Revise the Constitution; Overthrow the Dictator!” By the time we reached the bus stop, the road was closed and filled with riot police and protestors. We walked toward Chungmuro, found the subway still running, and left the area.
The scene of office workers joining the protests stuck in my mind. Something big ― good or bad ― was going to happen in Korea. The protests built from that day and the media began reporting them with even more frequency. Talk of martial law, a coup, or both was in the air, but the demonstrations only swelled. I could tell that Korea wanted democracy badly.
On June 29th, ruling party candidate Roh Tae-woo issued the June 29 Declaration that accepted the opposition’s demands for free direct presidential elections. It also included granting amnesty to political prisoners, including Kim Dae-jung, an end to media censorship, and other democratic and social reforms. The Constitution was amended and direct elections were held in December. Roh won the election with 36 percent of the vote because Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung divided the opposition vote.
The students who filled the streets in 1987 are now in their late 40s or early 50s, and university students learn about 1987 in history books and from their parents. Korea has come a long way since then. Kim Dae-jung’s election in 1997 marked the first peaceful transfer of power to an opposition party candidate in Korean history. Local autonomy began in 1995 and has taken root. Most rankings of freedom and democracy rank second or first in Asia, rivaling Japan.
As Winston Churchill famously said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” It is imperfect and, at times, very messy. To improve democracy, it is important to understand it both as a goal and a practice. To work, democracy relies on a structure of laws that protect freedom and allow of the will of the people to rule. Establishing the structure of democracy was the goal of the 1987 protests.
To work well, democracy relies on fair and open practices. Except for a brief flurry of democracy in 1960 and 1961, South Korea had years of authoritarian rule until 1987. This followed 45 years of harsh Japanese colonial rule, which followed more than a thousand years of monarchy and aristocratic rule. For many older Koreans, then, authoritarian practices are the norm, even for those who took to the streets in 1987. People in power make arbitrary decisions. Information is held close and distributed strategically. Orders are expected to be followed.
Younger generations that came of age after 1987 find entrenched authoritarianism alienating. They want to give input and want more openness. This is reflected in the public outrage at government’s failure to reveal promptly the names of the hospitals where patients with the Middle East respiratory syndrome were being treated. The lack of information was taken as a measure to protect the hospitals at the expense of public health.
The situation will improve as younger generations move into positions of authority, but public pressure to adopt laws and practices that increase openness will help accelerate the process. After all, when the “silent majority” speaks, as it did so clearly in June 1987, things change.
By Robert J. Fouser
Robert J. Fouser, a former associate professor of Korean language education at Seoul National University, writes on Korea from Ann Arbor, Michigan. ― Ed.
