Move to militarize South Korea sends a ‘troubling’ signal to democracies — analysts

By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

THE BID to impose a military regime in South Korea and other authoritarian trends in some of the world’s flagship democracies send a troubling signal to the Philippines and other nations with weak check-and-balance systems, analysts said.

Amid growing discontent in his leadership, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol late on Tuesday announced on national television that he had declared martial law, citing communist threats within their parliament.

Despite reported police harassment, it took only a few hours for South Korea’s National Assembly to strike a majority vote against the martial rule, forcing Mr. Yoon to lift the order on Wednesday morning.

Cleve V. Arguelles, chief executive officer and president of Philippine think tank WR Numero, said South Korea, often hailed as a success story of democratization, has significant symbolic weight in the global order.

“When a democratically elected president imposes martial law without clear and justifiable reasons, it sends a troubling signal to the global community,” he said in a Viber message.

“Such actions erode trust in the principles of democracy and risk normalizing authoritarian measures, even in stable democracies.”

The failed attempt to declare martial law in South Korea, a 76-year-old democracy, comes just as the world braces for the US presidency of Donald J. Trump, a Republican politician who has capitalized on populist sentiments and who himself has accused opponents of being communists.

The last time South Korea was placed under martial rule was in 1980, when student and labor unions launched a massive uprising.

That was eight years after the Philippines itself was placed under Martial Law, with the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr.  also citing a “communist threat.”

His Proclamation No. 1081, dated two days earlier, abolished Congress and allowed him to consolidate power by extending his tenure beyond the two presidential terms allowed by the 1935 Constitution.

Mr. Yoon, in his declaration of a state of emergency, accused South Korea’s main opposition party of anti-state activities and of sympathizing with North Korea.

Mr. Arguelles said when a nation like South Korea succumbs to actions that undermine its democratic framework, “the ripple effects are far-reaching.”

“It diminishes the credibility of democratic governance and provides a precedent that other leaders across the world might exploit,” he explained. “Moreover, the instability or democratic backsliding of one country affects others.”

Democracies are interconnected, he added, noting that the decline of one weakens the standing of democratic governance worldwide.

“For countries like the Philippines, where democracy already faces significant challenges, such developments could embolden leaders to consider similar undemocratic measures, further deepening regional democratic stagnation.”

The Philippines has been considered as Southeast Asia’s oldest democracy after the ouster of the Marcos patriarch, which resulted in a freedom constitution that restored checks and balances in the government.

The country, however, suffered a major democratic backsliding, especially under Rodrigo R. Duterte who, during his six-year term, undermined the people power uprising that deposed Mr. Marcos.

His administration had been marked by arrests of critics and activists, emboldened by his anti-communist remarks that domestic and international experts said had far-reaching consequences.

Last year, the Philippines remained a “flawed democracy” as it inched down a spot to 53^rd out of 167 countries in a democracy index by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

In the same index, South Korea was tagged as a “full democracy,” seeing a two-point increase in ranking to secure the 22^nd spot.

Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines, said the Philippines is more vulnerable to democratic backsliding because its Congress has failed to become genuinely independent from the Executive branch.

“Any leader can try to abuse power and test the limits of current political processes. But in the case of South Korea, we see the strength of parliament to immediately negate that declaration,” she added in a Viber message.

CHECKS AND BALANCES
And it does not help that many ordinary Filipinos are not fully aware of the check-and-balance system in the government.

“In the case of South Korea too, it helps that they have dedicated and committed legislators from both opposition and administration camps who know their constitutional mandate,” Ms. Atienza said.

The opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday said it will launch impeachment proceedings against Mr. Yoon if he doesn’t resign immediately.

Meanwhile, the leader of Mr. Yoon’s People’s Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, has apologized to the public and called for the dismissal of their defense minister.

“The minister of defense, who recommended this martial law, should be immediately dismissed, and all those responsible must be held strictly accountable,” he said in a statement to reporters, based on a report from CNN.

Hours after the martial law declaration, a majority — 190 out of 300 members — of South Korea’s National Assembly generated a unanimous veto vote.

Under the South Korean law, the president “shall comply” with parliament’s decision.

“The recent series of events in South Korea could be considered as proof that authoritarian tendencies can survive and even thrive within a supposedly liberal democratic system,” said Anthony Lawrence Borja, a political science professor at De La Salle University in Manila.

“However, if there are strong and legitimate representative institutions in place, authoritarians could only go so far as disrupt without wholesale destruction,” he added in a Facebook Messenger chat.

Mr. Borja said strength and legitimacy of the Philippines’ representative institutions gravitates “around the shared ideal among ordinary citizens that they should all serve the public good by serving or being aligned with the chief executive.”

“I don’t think ordinary Filipino citizens have the same sense of institutional checks and balances as their East Asian counterparts in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.,” he added.

“Could we even distinguish between representatives and leaders or are we on a slippery slope that equates voting to a free license for the victors?”

Hansley A. Juliano, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University, said democracy is easily toppled or overruled by strongman personalities.

“It takes generations for societies to become immunized again from charismatic and authoritarian leaders, and the fragility of democratic institutions is difficult to sell to societies which are precarious,” he said via Messenger chat.

WEAK OPPOSITION
And it does not help that the Philippines, currently, has a weak political opposition.

“They have been suffering the age and credibility issue that South Korean politicians, at least at the moment, do not have.”

The liberal opposition Democratic Party holds a majority in the 300-seat National Assembly.

In the Philippines, which has a bicameral Congress, the opposition holds about 5% of the 308-member House of Representatives. Meanwhile, there is only one opposition member in the Senate.

“Major lesson here is that we should not be repeating authoritarian and populist episodes,” said Ms. Atienza.

Closure, she noted, is an important step to ensuring that the Philippines will never go back to its authoritarian past.

“File strong cases backed up by empirical evidence and convict and punish accordingly erring politicians.”

In the face of democratic backsliding, the Philippines struggles to defeat corruption, ranking 115^th out of 180 countries in the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index.

For one, Vice-President Sara Z. Duterte- Carpio, who has been capitalizing on anti-communist sentiments, is now facing two impeachment complaints grounded in accusations of graft and corruption and betrayal of public trust, among others.

“This is an opportunity for us to ask what opposition actually means for the ordinary citizen instead of simply echoing the lines being drawn by claimants,” Mr. Borja said.

Ms. Atienza said stronger civic and voter education are “important tools” in preserving the country’s democratic gains.

Mr. Borja and Mr. Juliano said international efforts to advance the concept of democracy should be suited in domestic contexts.

“An imperial approach to the defense of liberal democracy around the world might cause its very demise.”

“We honestly need more Global South voices that the Philippines is likely to listen to or sympathize with,” Mr. Juliano said.

In the 2023 democracy index, which noted lower scores in Asia, only Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea were tagged as “full democracies” among East and Southeast Asian countries.

Aside from the Philippines, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Mongolia, Thailand, Singapore were labelled “flawed” democracies, while Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Laos, North Korea, and Myanmar were tagged as “authoritarian.”

Like South Korea, the Philippines is largely aligned to the West, with European and American entities largely supporting domestic push for human rights, civil society engagement, electoral reforms, and media freedom through programs and policies.

And like the US, Europe also struggles with democratic backsliding inside its backyard as seen in the rise of far-right parties.

A September report by the International Bar Association said seven EU members such as Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovakia now have far-right parties within government.

It particularly noted the rise of Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland, which won almost a third of the vote in the eastern state of Thuringia in September, in a move “marking the first time a far-right party has won in a state parliament election in the country since the Second World War.”

For countries that already face significant democratic challenges, backsliding in advance democracies “could embolden leaders to consider similar undemocratic measures, further deepening regional democratic stagnation,” Mr. Arguelles said.