SEOUL, June 11 (UPI) -- South Korea's main opposition People Power Party announced 36-year-old Lee Jun-seok as its chairman on Friday, making him the youngest-ever leader of a major political party in the country's history.
Lee, an entrepreneur and Harvard graduate who has never held elected office, defeated his closest rival, four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won, by a vote of 43.8% to 37.1% at the party's national convention. The elections used a combined form of voting from party members and opinion polls from the general public.
South Korean opposition party names rising star Lee Jun-seok youngest-ever leader, UPI, June 11, Thomas Maresca; https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/06/11/skorea-Lee-Jun-Seok-People-Power-Party-youngest-ever-leader/6541623397247/
Rising star? Oh, he's from Harvard, that makes him alright from US point of view.
The "il be" ( 일베 )* crowd loves him. These people talk to themselves on social media about how women get preference for jobs, don't serve in the military, and have other "advantages" over males. There is a sense of crisis among these voters in a neo-liberal economy strapped by excessive real estate speculation, having to know someone influential ( 인맥 in mek ) to get a job or other opportunity, and of course, the pandemic restrictions and adverse economic and social effects. Therefore, household formation is down, birth rates are sharply down, and jobs commensurate with skill levels are scarce. This block of under 40 voters is stuck living at home with mom and dad in many cases. However, contrary to their misogynist views, South Korea, is regarded by most studies as having one of the most regressive records on women's rights in the OECD. Yet, the me too movement in South Korea provides the scapegoat for this readily exploited cohort of angry voters in the their twenties and thirties.
These disaffected younger generation voters are a source of instability in South Korean politics and are being manipulated as a distraction from some really serious threats to democracy particularly in the traditionally conservative South Korean press, the administration of justice (the courts, and the prosecutors offices), and the related widespread business corruption ( 감언판유착 prosecutor press court collusion and 적폐기득권체제 deeply rooted evil system of special interests ).
The right through its control of the press and the court system has succeeded in creating a false impression that the current administration is responsible for the real estate crisis in particular. Both conservative candidates elected in Seoul and Pusan mayoral races have been involved in dubious real estate transactions of the kind deplored. Conservative members in the National Legislature refuse to disclose their real estate holdings over the past seven years while democrats were forced by leadership to disclose their holdings.
*Il be notes from our April 7 post, Reality Check in Seoul and Pusan:
Il be ( 일베저장소- 일간베스트 저장소, 약칭 일베 ) is an internet community in South Korea that appears to share the qualities of Trump's "deplorables" on QAnon. One young democratic pundit recommended a counter strategy in the online gaming community of engaging the misguided young people found there who live in an (addictive) internet virtual reality. I think Hol was trying trying to recommend a similar tact, of sincere engagement, but as a 40ish journalist, he goes a little too far, in discussing the misogynist meme as having some foundation in fact. (There are analogous recommendations by progressives in the US not to denigrate the "deplorables" but to engage them and understand their frustrations with government.) These are the people who gave the PPP the landslide earlier this week. According to this view, they didn't vote for the PPP but rather they voted against alleged democratic party hypocrisy and ineffectiveness. The hypocrisy argument is based upon a virtual reality created by the press-prosecution conspiracy against the democratic party and the politicization of the South Korean judicial processes. The ineffectiveness argument is based upon all sectors of the right, media, justice administration, the Korean medical society, the evangelical community, and the paramilitary and former military zealots, conducting obstructive tactics to paralyze government processes and policies. This is clearly the PPP constituency. Notably, O Se-hun appeared with these elements at a large October 3, 2019 demonstration in Seoul, which labeled Moon Jae-in a dictator and communist and called for his impeachment. This is the il be mantra.
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