as if millions of voices suddenly Election Trucks cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
-With apologies to Mr Kenobi.
It’s Midnight in Korea and officially election day has begun. And mercifully it means the election campaign has finished.
You are either very lucky or haven’t actually been in Korea if you haven’t seen or heard what has become almost ubiquitous in Korea over the last fortnight – teams of middle aged women driving around on the backs of Bongo trucks singing and dancing in front of 1984-esq posters of political candidates at all hours of the day and night. (And especially morning!)
Over the last week Yeokgok Station, East of Seoul on the Blue Line became a mecca for this kind of stumping, the unique geography of the Northern entrance of the station providing space for politicians and parties of every colour ample room to park their truck and deploy row upon row of bowing and dancing ajummas to appeal to their constituencies.
While there are election trucks in other countries, the ferver, excitement and sheer energy accompanying the Korean version is yet another one of those things peculiar to Korea.
A number of people have covered this phenomenon during this and previous election seasons mostly from the point of view of novelty.
Last Saturday, as I wandered amongst the colour coordinated ajummas, I found myself asking where do these trucks fit in when it comes to Korea’s democracy?
I have neither the time nor patience to take an in depth look that the likes of Gusts of Popular Feeling are much better equipped for and at doing, but offer up a couple of points for your consideration.
First and foremost, modern Korean democracy is little more than 20 years old. Signs of this immaturity can be seen both in some of the less than parliamentary behavior Korea has seen, as well as the spectre of corruption that still hangs over politicians and civil servants – remnants of authoritarian regimes of past if not of a civil service under class in feudal times.
As a result there is a fair amount of distrust amongst voters for elected officials – not that this is necessarily unwarranted - see: authoritarian regimes mentioned above. See: corruption mentioned above. That being the case, why bother producing expensive election materials that constituants are going to dismiss out of hand as being a pack of lies? I put to you petrol is cheaper than printing, and those ladies are volunteering their time.
There is no need to spend money on campaigning. (well publicly anyway, bribes and kickbacks on the other hand… who knows?) I am open for correction but I believe spending on campaigns is tightly controlled by law, so rather than like in the American (and increasingly other Western) contexts, you don’t need to be a millionaire to run an election campaign in Korea (although I’m sure it helps – see above). Anyone with the funding to rent a truck and a sound system can run an effective campaign!
Note: You will also need someone who can bastardize children’s songs and football chants to include your name and party affiliation. Gotta have something to pump over that sound system at 7am on a Monday morning directly below my apartment window.
Finally there’s no real alternative. Along with spending, media for putting out a candidate’s message and indeed constituant’s discussion of election related topics is tightly controlled. At the end of April an individual was arrested for conducting an informal (and no doubt wholly inaccurate) poll on twitter on candidates for Gyeonggi-do governor. That happened only a week after the entire prosecutorial office came out and said they would specifically looking at services like Twitter and the portals for illegal electioneering.
Although these sorts of things might have to do more with the current administration than anything else. You will recall that in 2003 Roh Mu Hyun came to power on the back of a massive surge of electioneering and activity that took place mostly on the internet. Government restrictions like the real name system and various other attempts at what amounts to censorship are the fruit of the current powers that be more than anything else.
To wit, the next time we see election trucks (as far as I can figure out) will be in two years time with elections for the Huse of Representatives and of course for the next President of Korea.
Until then may your mornings be blissfully free of tunes like “If you’re happy and you know it vote for Kim Gi Yeong” and your journeys to the subway absent of rows of bowing and chanting ajummas.
