K-pop stars and Korean Politicians: Standards of morality

Courtesy of Jeol Duggan

By David A. Tizzard

The word 'idol' is used here for a reason. South Korean pop stars are expected to live up to almost impossible standards of behavior. They present themselves as an image of something beyond human: A Platonic ideal standing in stark contrast to the corruptible and damaged existence we present in our more mundane lives. Those in the Korean music spotlight are required to refrain from dating, from speaking out on political matters, and from doing anything that might seem in-line with what normal people do. This probably goes some way in explaining why a lot of the music is un-relatable and devoid of any relevance to real life.

But so what? We know the Korean music scene has its idiosyncrasies. And, more than that, it works. People around the world love the stuff. The para-social relationship fans have with these beyond-human idols is a huge part of the appeal. It is an emotion: wrapped up, packaged, and sold. Some of the emotions that drive this particular industry are purity, devotion, and unwavering loyalty. Idols live for their devoted fans, serving them in a truly selfless manner.

What of the politicians of South Korea? One of the biggest stories at the moment is about a former presidential frontrunner seeking a political seat so that he might avoid criminal investigation. The case is neither unique nor really that surprising. Of course a lot of the back and forth that goes on between the ruling and opposition parties in Korea is politically motivated and driven by revenge rather than truth, fact, or law. Yet there is a prevailing sense that some politicians are engaged in actions that might not always be in accordance with the law but are nevertheless necessary as part of their job.

So rather than the lives and actions of other people in society, this is a conversation about our roles as citizens and the expectations we place on other people. What do we expect of pop stars and politicians? What standards should we be asking of them?

For the upcoming June 1 local elections, there are currently 7,459 candidates registered. A study carried out of those seeking to represent us produced results that were not necessarily surprising, but worth drawing attention to nevertheless. Of the candidates, 27.5 percent are female. While that number might seem low, it's an increase from four years ago and points to a trend of increased representation across the board (albeit slowly).

Obviously all the candidates are rich. This is one the biggest problems in most societies around the world. While people focus on diversity in terms of gender, skin color, or ethnicity, there is often little attention paid to economic and class diversity. So we get rich people making rules and laws that will, for the most part, benefit rich people. And thus, in terms of tax payments, over the past five years, more than one thousand of the candidates have had arrears and 49 still do. Worryingly, there are 96 candidates who have made zero tax payments during that time. Good work if you can get it, I guess.

Of the 5,430 male candidates who are required to perform mandatory national military service, approximately 12 percent have failed to do so. However, as with most of these statistics, the number gets larger as you go up the power scale. For those seeking positions as heads of metropolitan and provincial governments, 9 out of 45 have not completed their military service.

In terms of criminal convictions, 2,720 (36.2 percent) of the candidates have at least one criminal case on record. Two of the candidates have 14 convictions each! As with military service, the richer the candidates, the higher the percentage of criminal convictions. Of the 15 who had assets of more than 50 billion won, six of these had criminal records. It is of course worth pointing out that not all of these convictions will be the same and some might be more understandable than others.

In the hugely successful Korean pop industry, fans expect purity from the artists. Conversely, in politics, we seemingly have little problem with politicians having all sorts of trouble maintaining the standards that they create and demand of us citizens. Fair enough, I guess. They are human after all.

But what if we as a society flipped our expectations? Of course we are never going to have perfect people. The world doesn't work like that. Yet in Korea if we asked of our lawmakers and politicians to be idols in the sense of conducting themselves perfectly and in the image of the nation while also allowing the artists the freedom to explore and express parts of the human experience and soul that we cannot normally access, what kind of world would we be inhabiting then? And when we elect lawmakers to rule over us, spend our tax money, and represent the nation, wouldn't it be nice if those that did were law-abiding citizens who paid their taxes and didn't have criminal records as a basic starting point?

Dr. David A. Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) has a Ph.D. in Korean Studies and lectures at Seoul Women's University and Hanyang University. He is a social/cultural commentator and musician who has lived in Korea for nearly two decades. He is also the host of the Korea Deconstructed podcast, which can be found online. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.