Public sentiment demonstrated in candlelight vigils

Public sentiment demonstrated in candlelight vigils. November. 14, 2016 07:27. by 이 진 leej@donga.com.

An illiterate peasant handed a piece of pottery to Aristides, a politician at the ancient city state Athene. Without knowing whom he was giving the piece, the peasant asked the politician to jut down "Aristides" on it. Aristides asked him, “What made you so angry with him, and ask me to do this?” The farmer replied, “I have nothing to do with him. Everybody says he is fair and fair, and I felt sick of it.” This is part of the episode "ostracism" in Plutarch’s Lives.

Ostracism was a great system that politicians who are highly likely resort to dictatorship are preemptively kicked out. If the number of pieces with the name of a person exceeded 6,000, the person was considered one to be ostracized. Aristides, nicknamed "fair person," wrote his name for the peasant and was ostracized after all. However, behind this plot was reportedly his political rival Themistocles. Ostracism was abused and gradually deteriorated into means to remove political rivals and caused mobocracy to prevail.

An unprecedented number of crowds gathered to stage candlelight vigils in Seoul on Saturday. It took at least half an hour just to get out of Gwanghwamun Station on Subway Line 5. While being streamed together with a wave of crowd, this writer came to hear people chant “Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung as presidential candidate,” before witnessing Lee commingled with a group of citizens. In a location not far away, People’s Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo was seen delivering speech loudly, saying, “We cannot let an acting president to lead the country for as long as one year and four months.” While Indi band Crying Nut was singing "Ride the Horse" in a festive mood, a procession of farmers was seen carrying a funeral bier, chanting, “Step Down (Park) Geun-hye.” The slogan ‘Park Geun-hye out’ was heard at most sites.

The English Revolution in 1688 was a bloodless revolution, in which William III of the Netherland joined hands with the English parliament to oust James II. As a result, James II’s daughter and his son-in-law jointly came to thrown as queen Marry II and King William. The vacancy of a king was thus occupied by "one plus one" as a queen and a king. However, the authority of the king was confined to the constitutional monarch system led by parliament. Without doubt, the three main opposition parties in the Korean politics have jumped onto the bandwagon represented by candlelight vigils, which were the biggest scale ever. It is questionable whether we can find a leader who can lead to better politics rather than being swayed by public sentiment, which can be perilous like a tiger.