The Korea Study Tour: A Reflection Paper

by Renato Palgan

During my study tour to South Korea last month, which was organized and sponsored by the National College of Public Administration and Governance of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, as part of the innovative learning process in the application of theories in doctoral class of public admnistration being taught inside the classroom, I had observed that the administrative culture and procedures of various institutions that we visited and considered as the key government agencies in the political, economic, social and cultural development of the Korean society have efficiently and effectively performed their assigned mandate. What especially caught me with amazement and surprise, as I reflect these institutions with their counterpart institutions that we have in our country, is the herculean tasked that they played in shaping the Korean society into what is now familiarly known as a modern and well- developed Republic of South Korea. In my almost four days of stay at the said country, I had personally witnessed the level of their national development which is now far, far away compared with that of our country, inspite of the fact that it had literally rose from the ashes of the Korean War in the 1950s that pulverized its industries, economic and political infrastructures and the situation of our country, during the same period of our history, was second only to Japan in Asia in terms of economic development, which is the reason why we were considered then as the emerging “Tiger Economy” in the region. That was really the glorious period of our nation’s history that had already been overtaken with so many despicable events, political crisis and conflicts, secessionist movements and insurgency, and even mismanagement of the economy and national affairs by the political leadership, that finally brought our country into now the “Sick man of Asia” and a laggard among our Southeast Asian neighbors, with exceptions to a very few countries.

In South Korea, the Korean Civic Education Institute for Democracy (KOCEI), as an information campaign unit of the National Election Commission, has performed a pro-active role in educating and promoting public participation in the electoral and political system of liberal democracy. Aside from enhancing public awareness, it has also maintained and preserved its democratic ideals and electoral integrity by eliminating the past practices of illegal election campaigns, vote buying and rigging, violence against candidates and illegal intervention into the voting and counting process. Even the young generations of students at their very early elementary years, who are considered as the future leaders of their country, are already indoctrinated with the positive values of good governance and liberal democracy by the institute.

Because of this unique role played by the National Election Commission, which is an independent constitutional body in Korea, the people can elect a good quality of political leaders in their unicameral legislature, the National Assembly, and other elective national and local positions in the government. Even their system of representation in the legislature is quite unique compared with our own system of bicameral legislature whose party-list representation at the Lower House is often marred with confusion and chaos of who really among them truly represent the marginalized sectors of our society. Its National Assembly representatives comprise of a single- member constituencies and a representative through proportional representation. And it cannot be dissolved by the sitting president even in times of national emergency. As a result of their efficient political system, the conduct of political exercises is quite clean, honest and free due to in some ways to the subsidy given by the national government to the dominant political parties for them to conduct a decent campaigns.

With the financial independence of political parties, those running for elective political positions need not worry for campaign contributions from the big business conglomerates and other so-called power-makers because they can sustain their own campaign expenses and they won’t be beholden to anybody as a form of political debt to vested interest individuals just like what happens to most of our politicians. In contrast with the Philippine context, participation and awareness of the people in the political system is mainly done by the media and not by the COMELEC, only during political election period when the people have the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates basing mainly on the candidates’ popularity and the capacity to buy votes, and not in terms of the principles and platforms that the candidates stand for. Thus, we have a low quality of politicians elected in both Houses of Congress and this is only a manifestation of uninformed citizens who are not fully aware of their duties and responsibilities in maintaining an honest and good political system. Our own COMELEC does not have an educational institute like KOCEI, neither our bicameral legislature is truly representatives of the people because of the existence of “guns, goons, and gold” political culture during election period. These are just some of the salient limitations of our COMELEC and bicameral legislature that have existed in our midst for quiet so long time now. And our institutions in promoting public participation need to learn something from the Korean experience.

Aside from KOCEI and the national assembly, another government institutions in Korea that are considered as the vanguards of accountability and transparency in governance are the Board of Audit and Inspection, which is a constitutional and independent agency tasked to audit and inspect government institutions, and the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, which is the only government anti-corruption agency. Between the two, the latter has a unique and prominent role to play in maintaining a good governance, like conducting a prompt investigation of any allegation of wrongdoings in the government, providing financial rewards and benefits to those who report of any corruption committed and found the allegation to be true after formal investigation, and protecting the whistle-blower and his or her immediate families. Although it is the only anti-corruption body, yet, it has surpassed the expectation of the people in providing a clean, honest and efficient bureaucracy. Again, comparing the Korean experience with the Philippines’ own anti-corruption campaign, a distinguishable difference of our own anti-corruption bodies is that we have so many formal anti-corruption organizations like the Ombudsman, Department of Justice, NBI, Presidential Commission on Good Government, Revenue Integrity Protection Service, Civil Service Commission, Commission on Audit and now, the Truth Commission, sprouting in the different agencies of the government and, yet, we have a poor performance in anti-corruption campaign compared with them. Based on some critical account published in the newspapers, the existence of these agencies is mainly to enforce and prosecute violators of anti-corruption laws and they lack a sound preventive policy on corruption.

            But beyond all these government institutions mentioned is the existence of key political personalities in certain period of time in Korean politics that provides a great leadership in guiding its nation to economic prosperity. President Park Chung Hee’s leadership in Korea, for instance, was almost synonymous to national modernization of Korean society, although the rise to economic development was also seen by many as a decline of political development due to the existence of military dictatorship in running the affairs of government and the people were deprived of their participation in choosing their leaders. In contrast with the Philippine context, the rise of Marcos dictatorship towards the end of his second term as president could have been a good opportunity to do the same path as what President Park did in Korea. But this thing did not happen. What Marcos’ cronies did was to plunder our national treasury for personal gains while making the country deeply sink into foreign debt and poverty. The brand of leadership between the two prominent leaders of both the South Korea and the Philippines history really makes the difference in the course of political and economic development between the two nations.

            Finally, but not the least, one of the distinctive traits of the Korean people, of which the Filipino people do not have, is their very high sense of patriotism and nationalism. The government institutions in South Korea like the KOCEI, BAI and ACRC could not have been so effective and efficient if these agencies are being manned and run by people who have no sense of purpose in loving their motherland. It is noteworthy to observe people like the Koreans who are binded together by a common desire to improve their society, to achieve worthy and noble things, to enhance the good name of their race and to the glory of their country, rather than seeking one’s own selfish interest. These good attributes of the Korean people can be seen daily as very few incidence of criminality, if not totally absent, in their society. They are so discipline and clean people as shown in the clean environment. No garbage and trashes can be found on the streets, no squatter shanties along the streets and river banks, and no stray dogs and cats can be found. Even their flea markets have no flies. If we, Filipinos, would only have the same national character of discipline, patriotism and nationalism, we can easily solve most of our major political, economic, social and cultural problems. The Korean Industrialization is brought about by their nationalistic inspiration to become an industrialized country. It is the kind of nationalistic progress that the Koreans have advanced greatly that we Filipinos are extremely wanting to be. But with the presence of thousands of Koreans living in our country today, it is not far fetch that we will be colonized by their culture and character, which is something good that we have to assimilate and imbibe from them.