South Korea shows the way

T

he world watched stunned as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in his country, a recognized economic powerhouse that had last seen military rule 40 years ago. But last Dec. 3, Yoon had his surprise televised address—aired at around 11 p.m. local time—citing the need to quash the pro-North Korea, anti-state elements threatening the nation.

Within three hours, however, the opposition-dominated National Assembly voted down Yoon’s declaration 190-0 even as military forces blockaded the entrance to the legislature. Angry crowds gathered outside, visibly upset by Yoon’s move. By the crack of dawn, a humiliated Yoon walked back his imposition amid mounting public outrage over what was seen to be an ill-planned power grab.

Yoon is now facing insurrection charges while his aides who helped him carry out the declaration are also facing criminal raps. And after weeks of his supporters and security blocking his arrest, authorities were finally able to march Yoon out of his home on Jan. 15 for questioning. A recent poll has also revealed that 70% of South Koreans want the Constitutional Court to uphold his impeachment.

The swift denouement of this political crisis may come as a surprise to the rest of the world, which is accustomed to protracted conflicts and standoffs. Yet South Koreans “were just as shocked (at the declaration),” said Soo Suh, senior program manager at the Asia Democracy Network, which publishes (Asia Democracy Chronicles) ADC.

“In the past, martial law was easier to be declared because we’re a baby democracy,” Suh said. “But now it’s just so unheard of.”

“Even now I can’t say we’re a very established and old democracy—we’re still fairly young,” she added. “But (this) incident proved that our democratic institutions are very strong. Because of our past traumatic history, Koreans have been working so hard to safeguard it.”

The speedy response of South Korea’s legislators and many of its citizens to Yoon’s martial law declaration has even become a thing of envy to many people in countries like the Philippines and Taiwan, which have also been under martial rule and have been grappling with attempts to bring back authoritarian policies.

Yet for many, too, Yoon’s brazen act brought back painful memories of what they went through during martial law, as well as fears that other leaders in Asia may follow his lead.

Filipino martial-law activist and Initiatives for International Dialogue executive director Gus Miclat, for one, remembered “feeling concerned … that Yoon’s declarations could give an idea to other tyrants in the region, as many of Asia’s leaders are basically wolves in sheep’s clothing—(in) Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia.”

“I would have never imagined that South Korea of all places would declare martial law,” said Miclat. “But I also had confidence in their people. Time and time again they have demonstrated resilience and willingness to fight for their democracy. South Koreans don’t seem to have a nostalgia for martial law, unlike the Philippines or even Indonesia, which elected figures from their dictatorship periods.”

He was referring to current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, whose martial rule (1972-1981) saw thousands dead, arrested, or forcibly disappeared. As for Indonesia, it now has as president Prabowo Subianto, former son-in-law of the late strongman Suharto, and who was himself implicated in rights abuses during his time as an army officer.

Sources: History, NPR, Official Gazette, OFTaiwan, UPI, PBS, BBC (2015 and 2021), Human Rights Watch, ICJ, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Kyodo News, DW

A democratization starting point

Ironically, said Miclat, it was the Philippines that had provided a template for democratization for other nations, including South Korea.

When millions of Filipinos trooped to the streets to oust dictator Marcos in the bloodless 1986 people power revolution, “that was our lasting legacy … and South Korea followed suit (in 1987), then the Czech Republic (1989), then Thailand (1992),” Miclat said. The thwarted student uprising against the military regime in Myanmar in 1988 was also inspired by the 1986 Philippine people’s revolt, as was a more successful one in Indonesia in 1998.

“Now,” Miclat said, “that legacy should come full circle. We should also take a leaf from the South Koreans’ book in what they did. That we should not be complacent with our victories, let their luster fade or waste away.”

Since its founding in 1948, South Korea has been under martial law 16 times. The last time martial rule was declared there was in 1980, by army general Chun Doo-hwan. The declaration swiftly ignited widespread student protests, which were met with brutal force by the military under Chun’s command. 

While official figures place the death toll at 200, the event, known as the Gwangju Massacre, became a significant turning point in South Korea’s trajectory, ultimately contributing to the nation’s transition away from authoritarian rule in 1987, Suh said. Since then, she said, South Korea’s democracy safeguards have included a strong emphasis on education and cultural memorialization to ensure that the lessons of past struggles remain relevant. 

Films, literature, and public discourse play a critical role in keeping these memories alive, said Suh. In fact, this year’s Nobel laureate for literature, Han Kang, is best known for her novel, Human Acts, a collection of interconnected narratives centered around the Gwangju uprising. 

“There is a strong culture of memorializing and keeping the public informed about our history, including martial law,” said Suh, “and I think this contributed to the massive mobilization. Of course, we also have that recent history of impeaching (former president) Park Geun-hye (in 2017), and people still remember that.” 

In contrast, many observers attribute Marcos Jr.’s presidential victory in 2022 to Filipinos’ misplaced nostalgia for martial law, which has been repackaged by disinformation campaigns as being the “golden era” of the Philippines.

Of course, to assume that the Philippines and South Korea would have ended up in the same place after their own uprisings would be an oversimplification, Miclat said. 

Apart from the two countries having drastically different economies and cultures, he said the Philippines suffers from historical amnesia, systemic corruption, and the deep entrenchment of political dynasties whose “interest (it was) to continue mal-educating and mis-educating our people, so they would remain like cattle.” 

Taiwan’s experience

In Taiwan, meanwhile, the increasingly pro-China turn of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) in recent years seems to have had the effect of reminding people of how the party had once ruled the country with an iron fist.  

Like the Philippines and South Korea, Taiwan also found democracy around the same period following four decades of military rule (1949-1987), the second longest martial law in the world, during which it was under the KMT. 

This experience, which overlapped with the so-called “White Terror,” known for its brutal repression of civilians and suspected communists, left a deep impact on Taiwanese society and education, fostering strong public opposition to such measures.

Yet Yoon’s declaration of martial law in South Korea still fueled historical anxieties about authoritarian rule in Taiwan, especially in light of its ongoing political tensions with China, said Leah Lin, executive director of Asia Citizen Future Association. 

She recalled that shortly after Yoon’s surprise announcement, Taiwan’s legislators said that they would review their own martial law regulations to make it harder to declare and easier to dismiss. 

President Lau Ching-te likewise reiterated that such “historic mistakes” must never be repeated. Yet shades of South Korea’s political crisis are haunting Taiwan now. For instance, the two biggest parties, the ruling Democratic People’s Party (DPP) and the KMT have been in political deadlock recently—similar to why a frustrated Yoon declared martial law.

When Yoon cited political obstructionism as among the reasons for his move, the DPP made a social-media post suggesting that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a similar situation. This was quickly deleted and replaced with a condemnation of the declaration. But the KMT was quick to jump on the DPP, accusing the ruling party of wanting to take a page out of Yoon’s playbook and declare martial law as well.

“But this is something we don’t buy, because [the] current KMT party is actually the dictatorship party,” Lin said. Indeed, around the same time, the KMT was pushing for controversial amendments to its electoral recall law, and on Dec. 21 managed to pass them by steamrolling through clashes in the assembly. 

“A lot of students and also some DPP members have been coming to the KMT headquarters and the Legislative Yuan to support the DPP,” said Lin. “And we can see that a lot of these protesters are employing South Korea’s creation, using K-pop beats and renting trucks …”

“There are some similarities,” she said, “and I think our people are trying to learn from South Korea’s protests, and it’s very impressive.”  

Lin, Miclat, and Suh all agree that South Korea’s example has demonstrated that democracy is not a self-sustaining project, and that civil society must work actively to make sure its hard-won lessons do not go in vain. 

Suh shared how, since Dec. 3, she and other civil society advocates have been pondering over the impact of their work and how best they could resist authoritarian moves. “We’re striving to give more capacity to civil society to make sure they know how to respond in certain situations like this,” she said. “But I think after this whole thing happened, and seeing the Koreans, I thought they’re already really so good at going out and protesting and mobilizing.”

“If anything, we are learning more from that,” said Suh. “And we’re trying to bring more activists outside of Korea into Korea so they could experience and see what a culture of protests and freedom of expression and thought looks like, even though it’s not perfect.”  

Miclat was all for the move, saying, “I hope South Koreans could share to the world their experience, and for Filipino people to study and learn from this … And to the would-be tyrants of the Philippines: beware and tremble at the possibility of the Filipino people doing the same.” ◉