The Anniversary and Anti-FTA Protests

Korean President Lee M.B. might want to take the temperature in Seoul. It's hot, hot, hot, and getting hotter.
Tuesday night, June 10th, a million Koreans flooded the streets of Seoul to express displeasure with their elected government and the hastily passed F.T.A. with the USA. A similar, if smaller, protest occurred in the major port city, Busan, simultaneously. The protest also marked the anniversary of the 1987 protest againgst then dictator Chun Doo-wah and his attempts to hand-pick his own sucessor. Within the charged atmospere of those 1987 anti-dictatoship protests, a university student reportedly died. Happily, the recent protests against President Lee M.B. and the F.T.A. with the USA have generally been non-violent.
What they have led to seems to be a war of words and perceptions. Slogans and images are flying. Serious Koreans are pictured on the Korean nightly news holding up signs that read (oddly, in Konglish, the Korean-English hybrid of choice) "Lee Meung Bak" (in Korean) ...OUT (in English)! Myriad Cabinet officers have tried to resign to take responsibility for the US beef import/export deal that acted as a lightning rod for all the antipathy against President Lee. I read that an agricultural minister even tried to apologize to the throng at the demonstration Tuesday night. But he was greeted with such intense calls of "traitor," that he seemed to become frightened, and he left the protest area.
The protesters at the most recent string of May-June demonstrations are definitely challenging President Lee M.B. and his cabinet, who are seen by the average Korean as wealthy autocrats who remain out of touch with the common people. High School and university students are a vital and large component of the protests. Many people disapprove of the president. Once you get beyond that point, opinions start to vary a little bit and various media outlets portray the broader opinions of the protests in very different ways. The English language papers, based in Seoul,often describe the protesters as expressing anti-US beef import slogans and broader anti-American sentiments. The Korean nightly news (which was prohibited from presenting both sides of the 1987 protest due to government censorship), according to my Korean friends, portrays the problems at issue as broader. Young Koreans are demanding more imput into, and control over, food safety regulations on imported foods, or "food sovereignty." Average Koreans are also demanding that the government recognize their "people power" or rights to consult with their elected officials before important decisions, such as Free Trade Agteements with foreign powers, are made. In my personal opinion, food sovereignty and democratic rights are both valid issues that Koreans need to explore with their elected officials.
Professor John Eperjesi wrote an impassioned defense of the Korean protesters in the English language paper The Korea Times this week. He presents a convincing argument for food sovereignty: the Koreans just want control over their food as it effects their health. They want to import food without harmful chemicals. Good for them. They want to import beef from younger cows that carries no risk of Mad Cow Disease. And therein lies the rub, of course.
Unfortunately, some of the early protests, and the e-mails and internet chats students and young people used to publicize them, spread some rumors and pseudo-science. All kinds of claims were made and the opinions of certain Korean and Korean-American "scientists" (some of whom later denied being involved) concerning the likliehood of Mad Cow disease occurring in American cows in 2008 were frequently cited. Claims were also made by a few Korean-Americans about the opinions of the "American Public" on the low standards used to judge US beef (see my previous posts for my opinion of one person claiming to speak for ALL Americans.Annoying!)
This pseoudo-science, and it's repetition on radio and talk shows in Korea, did not go over well with American diplomats. In fact, from what I've been told by my Ex-pat friends,it did not go over well with a lot of American businessmen, engineers, and scientists who do business in Seoul. Many foreign science teachers and English teachers teaching in the Seoul area also started to express annoyance. In my humble opinion, it is the repetion of this pseoudo-science about the liklihood of humans catching Mad Cow Disease and related disorders in 2008 that led a few expats to describe the protests in the English media here as mass "hysteria."
Were the protesters really hsyterical? Generally, no. Not from what I've seen and read. However, certain protests and anti-FTA websites originating here in the Seoul area have given an outlet to more extreme protectionist and anti-American activists. Whoever handed the microphone to the man who advocated the boycott of ALL American companies in Korea at a recent protest was not really thinking clearly. That one over-zealous man was not just anti-Lee, he seemed anti-American.But of course he is just one crazy guy getting his fifteen seconds of fame. The protesters, as they exercize their democratic rights, need to be careful not to legitimize such extremists.
In addition, the protesters would be wise to distance themselves from some of the more protectionist groups and politicians who are active in Seoul. Testing the safety of imported food as much as possible is one issue. Health is an important value in Korean culture. Health and "well being" seem to concern Koreans in every age group. Keeping the ratio of exports to imports low is a totally separate issue. I recently had dinner with some American businessmen and engineers in their 40s. They reported perceiveing a truly protectionist business climate in Seoul these days. Korea wants to be an exporter on the world stage. In trade, as in personal relationships, it "takes two to tango." Recently, an expat blogger in Korea wrote about it well-in trade, as in love, he wrote "trust is at the center of every relationship...Koreans don't trust their government...or the US." Koreans can't expect to exports cars and electronics to the US on a grand scale without making minor concessions on what they will import. I am NOT saying these concessions have to be made on the beef. They just have to be made somewhere. I see trade relationships around me at my school all day long. In the schoolyard out my window, no one wants to play with the kids who won't play fair.
There will reportedly be more protests on June 13th, the anniversary of the day that US soldiers accidentially ran over two Korean middle-school students with an armored vehicle. That event was a horrible tragedy and I can understand why dsome people would still harbor some anger. However, Americans in general are of course not to blame for one isolated accident.
I myself hope that the food sovereignty protests can keep their focus narrow and advocate specific, democratic reforms instead of giving way and crumbling into mass stages for nationalism and protectionsim.