Korean Example 2010

8/3/2019 Korean Example 2010

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Korean Example #

1

Before discussing about the subject named “Korean Example”, the most necessity for

the readers to absorb something into their inner heart is the knowledge given by ourown political history as the great political lessons that we all had ever learnt.

What are these great political lessons?

In short, they are to be divided into two parts.

( 1 ) Ideological Lessons

( 2 ) Historical Lessons

In this case, our own political history means the past political upheaval round about1988-2007.

It was indeed a mass-uprising against socialist one party state that had demanded

democracy and multi-party political system. The change was come out with the military

coup led by General Saw Maung and SLORC which also removed socialist economy and

sketched out the market oriented economy. The election was also held in 1990 by the

military leaders.

However, without a Constitution, the past election of 1990 had gone into chaos and

conflicts between the military and the political forces. The landslide victory of NLD wasunrecognized by the military and confrontation policy was taken by most of the

opposition forces as political weapon. Peace for civil war was then and is still a

significant political issue among ethnic groups both armed and unarmed. Thus, there

was a call for National Reconciliation as a political slogan between military, political

forces and the ethnic groups.

Opposition political forces as its head was NLD which demanded Dialogue for National

Reconciliation and called for political power to be handed over by the military as the

champion of the 1990 election, but the Military Forces in the name of SPDC said about

the necessity of the Constitution and set up the National Convention as NationalReconsolidation purposes and to draw up such a constitution for another multi-party

election.

Confusions, conflicts and clashes have been remarkable as milestones in numerous

years after years and unresolved problems and unanswered issues, many dilemmas and

lots of obstacles are still being taken place in Myanma Politics.



Why?

2

Constitution was done and the seven steps road maps were drawn. The new election

was set for 2010.

But, unexpectedly there were two giant events happened in Myanmar. One was

Sangha’s strike in 2007 and another one was the cyclone Nargis in 2008.

The economy of the country was hit. Political situation is still in turmoil. Existing

government had to face with the international pressures more than before. Especially

USA entered Myanma Politics more specifically when and after those periods. The saidand done constitution was confirmed with a referendum in 2008 soon after the great

storm.

Democracy and Human rights are mixed in challenging the military government, and

UNO, UNSC and even the General–Secretary of UN had participated in Myanma Politics

with many other big nations far or near.

At present, the ruling military government pushed toward the coming election only and

it has also warned the political forces about the National Reconciliation and Democratic

Reform are just to be done only in the National Assembly but not in the streets.

All are currently being seen and faced if like or dislike.

It is seemed to be dragged along by the history of the society and its current civilization

status. The class struggle, in specific sense, the economic class struggle is everywhere

and no one can deny it.

“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make

it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given

and transmitted from the past. “ *

So, we have to see and select the righteous and acceptable political policy to suit with

our own society itself is the essential fact. For that matter, we have to analyze Myanma

Society first and foremost by Political Economy for finding the ways and means toward

National Reconciliation and Democratic Reform to gain Peace and Prosperity in future

Myanmar.



Saying shortly, Myanma society is to be analyzed as an Autocratic Feudal Society. It had

been politically autocratic since the city states days to the present nation states era

formed after Independence. It is economically feudalistic as being under Rent

that reigns and drives our daily l ives. **

Yet it is entirely neither industrialized nor modernized into capitalist nature parallelingwith other nations after Independence. Very scarcely earning the Wages that could not

allow our finance to make Investments to manufacture wholesale outputs as Capitalist

Production.

We need foreign investments and high-tech supports including intellectual services. We

must promote and encourage our human resources as well as natural resources, and

protect and upgrade our environment materially and spiritually.

Capitalist Democracy is essential for us. So, how to abolish the feudal economy is the

basic factor to erase the autocracy for the democracy step by step at the same time. It

is the Gradual Reformation, not the endless revolution, which is needed for us as soon

as possible.

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1. Ideological Lessons

The meaning hereby intended to express is political ideology generally suited to our

society called Myanmar. In fact, Myanma society had been influenced by Marxism-

Leninism or Socialist Communist political ideology rather than Liberal Democratic

political ideology since before Independence or the Second World War.

Therefore, the many big mistakes had been done because of that leftist ideology which

favored socialist economy with parliamentary democracy or with military dictatorship or

one party ruling. Whatever it is, the political status can be identified as totalitarianism

or autocracy and state-owned economy as landlordism or feudalism can be branded as

its economic condition.

The main mistake w as choosing the path of Socialist Economy to achieve

prosperity and wealth . But instead of achieving wealth and prosperity, the dream of

salvation to the poor also expired within some years and civil war had broken out. The

result was complete deteriorated in our Economy and Unity of the Nation as a whole.

It was indeed not because of minor political errors but because of the ideological

mistakes in essence. It was the direct way to socialism in the backward feudal society



not going through the capitalist mode of production, as what Leninism visualized as

bypass theory, to gain socialist state.

So, and if the society concerned underwent Leninist theory of direct way to socialism,

the consequences of political economy of that society was nothing but t he

slipping back to the feudal autocratic ruling of it. This is the second ideological

flaw and remarkable to the global ideology crisis of the time in the twentieth century.

For that causes and reasons, though in succinct, the indispensable steps for our society,

which is as very backward as feudal one because of the ideological error above

mentioned, should be gradually reformed towards Capitalist Democracy to minimize

Rent in favor of Wages and Investments.

We must take such an ideology lessons before start thinking to make National Policies

for the Nation Building Process in future.

2. Historical Lessons

In this case, history means political history of Myanmar compared and contrasted with

the global society politically and economically where it may concern.

My specific point shall be of 1789 and 1848 of France and 1905 and 1917 of Russia as

Classical Revolutions of the world as major part of the economic class struggle for class

supremacy.

Those Classical revolutions were ended with coup d’état and the mass-uprisings were

failed to seize the political power. It is the feudal autocracy which could not pave the

way for genuine capitalist democracy.

Then, after the Cold War, Modern Reformations had taken place even in Russia and

China. The ruled or the long time oppressed class had to share power with the ruling

class in modern times. The most apparent example was South Korea’s modern

reformation toward capitalist democracy from military autocratic ruling.

We have to take the major lessons from that Korea Example for the need to our

Myanma Society to learn to gain democratic reform.

Please just take a look on the following excerpt of the Korean history in brief.***

Student demonstrations against the government in the fall of 1971 prompted Park to

declare a state of national emergency on 6 December. Park was reelected for another



six-year term in July 1978, but the NDP, now led by Kim Young Sam, made major gains

in the National Assembly. In October 1979, Kim was expelled from the legislature after

calling for governmental reform.

Riots protesting Kim's ouster were reported in several major cities. On 26 October 1979,

in what may have been an attempted coup, Park was assassinated by KCIA DirectorKim Jae-gyu, who was later executed. Martial law was again imposed, and a period of

relative calm followed as some of the more restrictive emergency decrees were lifted by

Park's constitutional successor, the prime minister, Choi Kyu-hah, who promised a new

constitution and presidential elections.

In December 1979, Maj. Gen. Chun Doo Hwan led a coup in which he and his militarycolleagues removed the army chief of staff and took effective control of thegovernment. Demonstrations, led by university students, spread through the spring of 1980 and, by mid-May, the government once more declared martial law (in effect untilJanuary 1981), banned demonstrations, and arrested political leaders. In the city of Kwangju, more than 200 civilians were killed in what became known as the Kwangjumassacre.

Choi Kyu-hah was pressured to resign and Chun Doo Hwan, now retired from themilitary, was named president in September 1980. Chun Doo Hwan came to powerunder a new constitution inaugurating the Fifth Republic. A total of 567 political leaders,including Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam, were banned from political activity. KimDae Jung, arrested several times after his 1973 kidnapping, was originally sentenced todeath but allowed to go to the United States in 1982. All existing political parties were

dissolved, and all political activity banned until three months before the 1981 elections.

Twelve new parties (reduced to eight) were formed to enter the 1981 elections, inwhich Chun Doo Hwan was elected to a seven-year presidential term by a new electoralcollege and his Democratic Justice Party (DJP) secured a majority in the reconstitutedNational Assembly.

Opposition groups quickly formed the New Korea Democratic Party (NKDP) to challenge

the DJP in the 1985 election; the new party became a strong minority voice in the

National Assembly. The issue of constitutional reforms, particularly changes in the way

in which presidents are elected…..

In the elections, held on 16 December 1987, Roh Tae Woo, as the DJP candidate, wona plurality of 37%, defeating the two major opposition candidates, Kim Young Sam andKim Dae Jung, who had been unable to agree on a single opposition candidacy and split55% of the total vote. Roh Tae Woo was inaugurated as president in February 1988when Chun Doo Hwan's term expired.



In the elections for the National Assembly, held on 26 April 1988, President Roh TaeWoo's party, the DJP, won only 34% of the vote. This gave the DJP 125 seats in theassembly, while Kim Dae Jung's Peace and Democracy Party (PDP) gained 70 seats,Kim Young Sam's Reunification Democratic Party (RDP) won 59 seats, 35 seats went tothe new Democratic Republican Party (NDRP), and 10 to independent candidates. Thus,

for the first time in 36 years, the government did not have a controlling vote in theNational Assembly, which quickly challenged President Roh's choice for head of theSupreme Court and by year's end forced the president to work with the assembly topass the budget.

In the fall of 1988, the National Assembly audited the government and held publichearings into former President Chun's abuses of power. In November, Chun apologizedto the nation in a televised address, gave his personal wealth to the nation, and retiredinto a Buddhist temple. Following the revision of the constitution in 1987, SouthKoreans enjoyed greater freedoms of expression and assembly and freedom of thepress and, in 1988, several hundred political dissidents were released from prison.

Unrest among students, workers, and farmers continued, however, and beginning in April 1989, the government repressed opposition. In October 1989, the governmentacknowledged making 1,315 political arrests so far that year. The National Assemblybecame less of a check on President Roh after tw o opposition parties (RDP,NDRP ), including that of Kim Young Sam, merged with R oh's DJP, forming anew majority party, the Democratic Liberal Party (DLP) in January 19 90. KimDae Jung was then left as the leader of the main opposition party (PDP ).

In the presidential election on 19 December 1992 , Kim Young Sam, now

leader of the majority DLP, won w ith 41.9% of the vote, while Kim Dae Jung(DP) took 33.8% . Inaugurated in February 1993, Kim Young Sam began anew era as the first president in 30 years who was a civil ian, w ithout a powerbase in the military.

The ensuing financial panic coincided with presidential elections on 18 December 1997,

the month that negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) began.

In 1998 and 1999, the government reduced the role of government intervention in thedomestic economy despite numerous strikes by workers protesting layoffs.

By mid-2000, Kim Dae Jung managed to steer Korea's economy out of the worst of the

crisis. The economy started to grow in 1999 and economic estimates suggested that

economic growth would top 10% for 2000.

In June 2000, Kim Dae Jung traveled to P'yongyang, the capital of the DemocraticPeople's Republic of Korea (North Korea) for an historic meeting with his counterpart,Kim Jong Il. The two agreed to pursue further cooperation in the future. This summit



meeting marked the high point of what became known as Kim Dae Jung's "sunshinepolicy" of rapprochement toward the North. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in2000 for his commitment to democracy and human rights in Asia.

Roh Moo Hyun was elected president in the December 2002 election, taking 49% of the

vote; he was inaugurated in February 2003. South Korea's economy in 2003 wasgrowing at 6.3%, a rate that was among the highest in the developed world.

References :

- The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx *- Capital Volume 3 ; Anti-Duhring ; by Karl Marx **- The Wealth of Nations ; by Adam Smith**- History - Korea, Republic of (ROK) - tax, export, growth, system, economic

growth, future, power, policy http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Korea-Republic-of-ROK-HISTORY.html#ixzz0dDuYOg9T ***

N.B. Korean Example# is South Korean Example (ROK)

Ye Kyaw Swa

Nyangyeeshin think tank

Yangon Myanmar

Wednesday, 3rd March, 2010.

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-

Korean Example 2010

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