The Electoral Plot Thickens

The presidential election scheduled for December in South Korea may not produce the clear-cut popular choice that had earlier been anticipated. What had been expected to be a race between one candidate representing the ruling party and a second representing the united political opposition is instead shaping up as a possible four-sided contest. The troubling chance thus grows that while the next president may be freely elected, he could in fact be the choice of only a minority of voters. That is not a healthy way to launch South Korea’s new democracy.

Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam, allies of convenience in the opposition but intense political rivals, have been unable to agree on which of them should seek the presidency and which should settle for a lesser role. Kim Dae Jung, who came close to being chosen president in South Korea’s last free election in 1971, believes that the leadership of the opposition is his as a matter of right. But there is powerful antipathy to Kim Dae Jung--in the military most of all, but also regionally and within the business and intellectual communities. Kim Young Sam is convinced that he stands the better chance of winning the election and of being inaugurated next February.

This split in the opposition would seem to boost the prospects of Roh Tae Woo, the candidate of the ruling Democratic Justice Party. But now a third Kim--Kim Jong Pil, a former prime minister and secret policeman--has announced for president. He has no chance to win, and seems to be running only in an effort to rehabilitate a reputation badly tarnished by charges of corruption and brutality stemming from his services to an earlier regime. But, if pursued, his candidacy could draw up to several million votes away from Roh.

Countries with long democratic traditions have no trouble accepting the results of multiparty or multicandidate elections. But Korea has no such tradition; its political culture, on the contrary, puts great stock in authority that is seen as being held unambiguously. That’s why the prospect of a president being chosen without the support of the majority is so troubling. That trouble could be avoided if a few men would agree to subordinate their personal ambitions to the national political good.