Trump is unlikely to suffer a fate similar to Park Geun-hye because America’s democracy is a lot older and more resilient than that of South Korea’s, writes Euny Hong.
The subsequent media coverage is rife with comparisons between Park and Trump, claiming that the impeachment of the former augurs the same fate for the latter. Social media sentiment is similar, with tweets like » Your move, America » and » Next to go is Trump. » However, likening Trump to Park demonstrates not just wishful thinking, but a fundamentally incorrect assumption that democracy is the same in every country.
I have no great love for Park, but it’s hard not to notice that her impeachment is pretty much based on the Korean people’s hurt feelings. She is possibly the first president of any democratic nation to be formally impeached for being embarrassing, stupid and indiscreet, and not for hard evidence of graft, corruption or perjury.
In America, there is no way a president can be impeached for being embarrassing and stupid. In fact, it might be one of the only jobs in the United States where you can’t be fired for that sort of thing. And that’s probably a good thing; ruling by the people’s emotions might work in Korea, but it is not compatible with American democracy.
What Park did/did not do
Bribery scandals circled Park, but never quite touched her directly: The beneficiary of the alleged bribes was not Park herself, but her closest confidante, Choi Soon-sil , the cult leader’s daughter who reportedly liked to make friends in male brothels. (Though Korean prosecutors on January 25 indicted Choi for her role in the scandal, she vociferously maintained her innocence.)
It was an unlikely friendship: Park is a president’s daughter (her father Park Chung-hee served from 1961 until his assassination in 1979); she speaks five languages and has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. If she had wanted someone to review state secrets, she could have asked Korea’s best and brightest or someone who had security clearance or, at the very least, an actual government employee.
Yet Park was sharing classified information with Choi, who had nothing to recommend her except that her father was Choi Tae-min, leader of a shamanistic, pseudo-Christian cult called the Church of Eternal Life. The elder Choi had told Park back in the 1970s, essentially, « I see dead people. » He claimed he had important messages to relay from Park’s deceased mother.
Upon Choi’s death, his daughter Choi Soon-sil assumed the role of Park’s « Chief Mental Influencer.
