Korea's Living Drama Series

13 January 2025 - New Series

Reputation at any Cost

?A very interesting and intriguing drama.?

Incrediblly ?two black box recording ?devices stopped working 4 minutes before landing in a crash that killed nearly 200 souls in Korea ?. Also late at night concrete mounds at the end of runways at regional airports are mysteriously being demolished. ? ?

I wonder whether this might have anything to do with a lack of transparency around public safety in Korea. ?

Surely not

While having a year-end break in Australia I caught up with a number of Korean/Australian friends?and, naturally, the conversation turned to the current?situation in Korea.

We are all big fans of Korean drama and one of my friends jokingly remarked that she would sell her Netflix shares given that people all around the world can watch a number of real live drama series on free to air television.

This led us to begin brainstorming what some of the titles of the dramas might be and we entered into a competition as to who could come up with the most accurate name and precis of the plot of the series.

Of course, in reality this tongue-in-cheek exercise disguises a very tragic and difficult challenge for the wonderful nation of Korea and its society and economy going forward. If one were to quickly sum up the thrust of all the suggested series from my friends it is a picture of a political environment devoid of policy and debate around the economy and the welfare of the community and dominated by personal interest, ambition and desperation.

Here are the series we voted the winners and thanks all my friends for such an interesting time together.

Double Desperation

The first suggestion was " Double Desperation ". ?This series got particularly high points among my friends.

The suggested story line here was that a President, desperate to end constant blocking of Government legislation in the Assembly and having issues of a "marital " nature, decided to declare "martial" law in order to break the deadlock and change the focus of political debate. He did so hastily and relatively unilaterally so this drama is emotion charged.

On the other hand- and this is where the "Double " comes in- there are two leaders of opposition parties who are desperate to avoid going to prison for a variety of corruption, influencing and election law violations. Their action in the drama is to block Government policy implementation and to impeach as many opposite parties as possible to delay court processes. For one leader it was too late- he went to prison. However, the other leader who months beforehand had tried another desperate measure of a hunger strike and developing a very frail appearance, became even more desperate. But in the end, he was given the gift of martial law

The Two C's

The next suggested series was called " The Two C's". In many ways this was a sequel to " Double Desperation".

This story line focuses on two types of law in Korea- Constitutional law and Common law.

In this series the interesting twist is that the Common Law is essentially subjugated to Constitutional Law by media commentators, celebrities, politicians etc. and the general public are taken down a path where it becomes acceptable to break the common law.

In this series the media headlines and high-profile influencers are overwhelmingly about issues of whether the Constitutional law have been breached by a number of political leaders and, admittedly, these are very serious issues that go to the core of democracy.

However, as the series progresses it becomes clear that in the background, receiving minimal public attention, other political leaders have been tried and convicted of serious criminal offences such as corruption, influence peddling and violation of electoral law and are either serving actual or suspended prison terms with more court cases pending. In the story in one case one political leader even demands the judge hearing his case be replaced - not an option open to the other leaders facing the Constitutional court.

The disturbing thesis of this drama is that the general community begin to get a message that breaking the common law is not such a big deal if political leaders can avoid sanction and, indeed, even go on to become a President of a country. Of course, the court’s ruling on the common law are fundamental pillars of a free and democratic state.

Paidocracy

The next suggested series was called " Paidocracy" and my friend suggested this having observed some of the rallies in Seoul recently and the thousands of people - many of them older citizens, pouring off buses.

The story here focuses on the very high cost of getting participants from all over Korea to rallies of thousands of citizens in central Seoul. It raises questions about where the source of funding is for the many bus drivers, the fuel used, the food consumed by the participants etc. There are suggestions made that many of the older rally attendees are actually paid to attend the rallies! The series goes on to suggest many wild theories that some funding comes from North Korea and some from major conglomerates, churches and trade unions.

A very interesting series that raises many questions about demonstrations of democracy in practice.

Partner Politics

The series "Partner Politics" confronts the viewer with the very real scenario of a country where the main policy focus and political commentary is not the economy or social wellbeing but, rather, what the families of current and former high profile political leaders are doing.

In this entertaining , but disturbing series, we see political debate and effort focus not on the real and meaningful issues facing the country but rather on luxury items gifted to the wives of politicians, credit card misuse by the wives of politicians, drink driving offences by family members of former political leaders, undue influence being placed to ensure the children of certain political leaders get into the best schools etc.

While in some ways this series could be classified as a comedy rather than a drama it does reinforce a view that there needs to be more focus on serious matters which go the core of governance of the country.

Role Reversal

We agreed that this series titled "Role Reversal" is indeed more like a comedy than a drama.

The plot here examines how in a time of political crisis so called "celebrities" begin to behave like politicians and use their influence and reach to support particular political causes, often with an ambition to further cement their public popularity and hence money-making ability going forward. The story has actors, singers, musicians etc. quite quickly morphing into politicians- but without the law salary levels etc. - we see the emergence of a new style of politician - perhaps we could call that "Celebdocracy"

On the other hand, the leading politicians start to assume the role of celebrities playing a variety of roles such as drama actors- e.g. in one case a young-looking man goes on a hunger strike and is transformed into a very frail old white-haired man. In another case a leading legal specialist turned politician attempts a political coup.