Last night, YOON Suk-yeol's political suicide lasted less than one hour. There was no scenario in which the lamest of all ducks could implement an actual martial law on the ground, and when I saw the media at the National Assembly and MPs walking in, I knew for sure I could go back to sleep.
Proving once more that he has no political skill whatsoever (was he following advice from his expert in anal acupuncture?), YOON decided to go with a bang, declaring the first martial law since the Gwangju massacre era, almost on the anniversary of CHUN Doo-hwan's coup...
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Last night's double feature: '12.12 The Day' or 'The President's Last Bang'? |
All that to make a point and denounce the way the opposition is abusing its legislative majority to undermine the nation.
Even if the argument is not unfounded, YOON has not been a model of probity himself, and using the ultimate political nuclear weapon is not the way for an utterly unpopular president to treat democracy and an assembly democratically elected in a landslide one year earlier.
Furthermore, unlike the controversial 2020 landslide (international media criticized the timing, which resulted in a referendum on the handling of COVID by the MOON Jae-in administration, who would have lost massively if the elections had been held a few weeks earlier during the Daegu crisis), last year's rout was mostly owned by YOON: yes his record was torpedoed by the legislative branch, but he scored too many own goals to deserve any shot at victory.
Needless to say, both sides of the aisle (HAN Dong-hoon and LEE Jae-myung) denounced yesterday's folly, and now YOON Suk-yeol has no choice but to step down or to face impeachment and give way to the next lame Duck(soo) in line, Prime Minister HAN Duck-soo.
My post right after the announcement of the martial law:
#YoonSukyeol
declared #martiallaw in #Korea to make a point: accusing the national
assembly of 'dictatorship', of willing to impeach him and take over
judicial power, of undernining the nation, and for some MPs, of working
for #NorthKorea. A radical move naturally denounced by both sides of the
aisle (#HanDonghoon & #LeeJaemyung), who have the power to undo
that move by vote, provided they manage to convene.
Reminders:
Korea's #balanceofpower worked perfectly to remove #ParkGeunhye but was
later distorted under #MoonJaein to protect LJM and friends from
#justice. Named by Moon to reform justice, YSY refused that unplanned
distortion of #democracy and resisted, eventually rising to win the
presidency against LJM, but without a legislative majority.
Like
Moon before him, Yoon disappointed on core principles. His outrage vs
outrage strategy seems likely to backfire considering his abysmal
popularity ratings.
My post after the confirmation of its withdrawal:
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