South Korean President, copying Putin?

Lee Myung-bak (on the left in the photo, Jackson/AP), the first year president of South Korea, is on the steep learning curve. As part of his efforts to quell his opposition, now prosecutors are issuing arrest warrants for those people who organized boycotts. The targets? Citizen activists who urged companies to drop their ads from major newspapers, Chosun daily, Donga daily, and Choong-ang daily, accusing them of mischaracterizing so-called Candle Rallies that dominated South Korean politics for good three months. The protests were against not only the government's lift of ban on the US beef but also, maybe more about, the hasty nature of decision making and its unwillingness to discuss with the public.

Anyway, the public reacted with mass protests and boycotts were part of them. Well, now they are in danger of being prosecuted for them. Boycotts have been used as a weapons of the public throughout the history of many countries. The blacks in the South, the blacks in the South Africa, Americans against Japanese invasion during the WWII, Indians under the British occupation, and so on and on. And of course, Koreans used it against the Japanese colonizers.

Some were more successful than others, but not a lot of them were so successful. They are usually hard to maintain because of "collective action problems." They were useful, however, in creating and maintaining political engine mobilizing the public. Therefore, it is more about political symbols than financial damages that matter.

There were only a handful of companies heeded to the boycott mobilizers. In other words, almost no companies canceled their ads and thus financial damages must be negligible to the three newspaper companies. Nevertheless, the government is in motion to protect the companies. Why? I can't think of any other reason but taming the public who are active in raising their voices.

Putin, the former president of Russia now the prime minister, was skillful in taming the public and the public media. Under his watch, the freedom of expression was taken away bit by bit through legal and illegal ways. As a result, now we have Russia dancing at the Kremlin Polka. It is, then, not so surprising the country is bullying its neighbors as well as its citizens again. Nobody may call the country democratic. (GW may have a different opinion though.)

Will South Korea follow the Russian path turning its clock back to 70s and 80s when generals roams the country killing people? Well, I hope not. But Lee's regime seems, sadly but clearly, similar to the military regimes than not.