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Time to muster our resilience

Published: 16 Dec. 2024, 19:59

Ha Hyun-ock
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

“Faith in democracy and faith in markets go hand in hand,” wrote Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary, in an opinion piece in 2021 urging the passage of two Democrat-backed bills to reform the voting and election system. “For our country to succeed economically, our market-based system must function alongside strong, effective government. Strong, effective government, in turn, requires a functioning democratic process,” he reasoned to emphasize the common wisdom that confidence in democratic institutions is the pillar buttressing markets.

Korea in December of 2024 sadly has set the perfect example of Rubin’s argument of the correlation between faith in democracy and markets. Korea’s democracy came under utter assault through the president’s abrupt late-night announcement of martial law on Dec. 3. The danger to democracy in its short history of less than four decades sent the markets and economy into a tailspin. The Korean won and stocks crashed as anxiety took hold of the markets. The government and financial authorities scurried to contain the fear factor ascending to a major crisis.

The market lost ground because its resolute faith in Korea’s democracy was shaken. Korea was never a safe destination for investment as it is still de facto at war with the North. But it is one of the world’s 10 largest economies with a strong role in the global value chain. The faith in Korea and its economic machine is anchored in its democratic system.

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, who share this year’s Nobel Prize for economics for their comparative study of state development, have attributed South Korea’s prosperity to its inclusive and democratic system in stark contrast to its northern neighbor under dictatorship.

In an interview with Korean media, Robinson stressed that democracy had been at the heart of Korea’s economic success. The martial-law decree was an attempt to shift the country’s “inclusive” institution into an “extractive” one, he pointed out, while praising the society’s willpower to defend democracy through the process of repudiation. Korean citizens rushed out to the streets in the cold dark night to protect the National Assembly from the raid of armed forces and help lawmakers into the building to vote on time to upend the martial law. They again filled the streets across the nation to root for the legislature to pass a presidential impeachment in the second attempt to prove civilian-led democratic “resilience” of Korea.

But our work is hardly done. The presidential impeachment motion is not itself a victory. The move only normalized law and order. The motion was a testament to public judgment that it was the fastest means to restore the constitutional order.

We now face the moment of truth of regaining faith in the markets. We must prove that the country can overcome various uncertainties and safeguard democracy. Politicians merely exposed selfish concerns about their regime instead of the country between the martial-law fiasco and the presidential impeachment. The excitement over the faster arrival of a presidential election and political maneuvering to capitalize on the momentum are woeful to watch.

The subpar political standards must be elevated to truly celebrate civilian containment against unconstitutional use of force. The display on both sides of the aisle — the main opposition acting as if it has already won the ruling power or the governing party in vegetative state after the second impeachment of one of its presidents — are equally pitiful. Bipartisanship and cooperation are a must not a choice in the face of national crisis. The rivalling parties must first join hands to expedite bills supporting civilian livelihoods and national interests.

Fact-finding and retribution must be thorough to ensure the grave abuse of elected office is never revisited. The work of protecting democracy and markets can be enduring and challenging. The bills may be expensive. But we can wisely and cool-headedly sail against the tumultuous waves by reminding ourselves of the stupefying fear during our brief encounter with the martial law nightmare. We must muster our resilience of defeating dictatorship and economic crises no matter how painstaking it had been.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.