on the passing of president roh of south korea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given the recent passing of former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit one of the less-contentious aspects of his political career: his campaign’s utilization of the Internet during the 2002 presidential race.

Much as President (then candidate) Obama is to be credited with making full use of Web 2.0 during his 2008 presidential campaign, he was hardly the first candidate to do so.   I might remind Wired Magazine that, despite the well-deserved accolades they bestowed upon Obama for his ‘use of the internet as an organizing and fundraising tool’, it was South Korean Roh Moo-hyun who first realized the importance of the Internet in the electoral politics of the 21st century.   I don’t think it would be a stretch to refer to Obama (at least in regards to his use of the Internet during his presidential campaign) as an American Roh Moo-hyun.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that it was in South Korea that first discovered the full potential of the Internet as a political tool.   The South Korean government has been actively promoting the use of the Internet among its citizens since the mid-1990s through large-scale investment in telecommunications and information infrastructure.   In the words of the 1995 Presidential Commission on Education Reform, this was designed to create “an education welfare state—a society of open and lifelong education to allow each and every individual equal and easy access to education at any time and place.”   By the time of the 2002 presidential elections, 68% of South Korean households were connected to broadband.   This figure is all the more astounding when it is compared with a rate of only 8% connectivity in Western Europe and 15% in the United States during the same year.   If any country’s community of Internet users was ready to be utilized by a tech-savvy political campaign, it was South Korea’s.

Let’s look, then, at the three dimensions of Roh’s Internet campaigning.   First, the Roh campaign created a web-based fan club called Rohsamo (short for ‘people who love Roh’).   This club grew to 80 000 members and was influential in coordinating the activities of Roh’ s supporters in the lead-up to the election.   Second, fund raising for the Roh campaign was organized by and channeled through it’s web-based activities.   Of the more than 203 000 donations made to the Roh campaign, almost half were on-line donations.   These donations equalled more than 4 trillion of the total 7.2 trillion won raised by the Roh campaign.   Furthermore,  Rohsamo was able to organize their members to coordinate small scale, local donation drives, which significantly increased the Roh campaign’s war chest.   And third, the Roh campaign solicited the suggestions of it’s supporters through the use of web forums, on-line polling, e-mails, text messages, and short video web-addresses given by Roh.   These suggestions gave the Roh campaign almost instantaneous feedback on its campaigning and allowed them to tailor their message to the interests and demands of the electorate (or at least their electoral base).  

In all three respects, the Obama campaign followed in the footsteps of Roh Moo-hyun.   And, I might add, the skillful use of the Internet by both men’s campaigns helped (in part) to secure the (Internet-savy) ‘youth vote’ for both candidates, with youths (here meaning voters under the age of 30) voting for both Roh and Obama by a ratio of roughly 2 to 1.   In effect, both Roh and Obama benefited from the seeming proclivity of those under-30 to communicate, socialize and organize through the Internet.   However, it should be remembered that Roh’s campaign did not so much create Internet-based political organizing as it expanded upon and professionalized pre-existing networks of citizens and potential voters.   Roh saw an opportunity to secure and expand his base on the ‘net and he grabbed it.   This is not to diminish the tactical brilliance of Roh’s use of the Internet to rally voters to his cause, but only to give South Korea’s netizens their due. 

With his untimely death, the legacy of Roh Moo-hyun’s presidency is already being reexamined by both his supporters and detractors.   Regardless of our respective opinions of Roh, I thought it timely for us to remember his campaign’s success in securing the support of South Korea’s Internet generation during Roh’s 2002 presidential campaign.

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References:

Ronda Hauben, The Rise of the Netizen Democracy: A case study of netizen’s impact on democracy in South Korea

Insung Jung, Korea: Can Edutopia Become A Reality?

Bon-Soo Kim, E-Democracy in the Information Age: The Internet and the 2002 Presidential Election in South Korea

of open and lifelong education to allow each and every individual

equal and easy access to education at any time and

place.”“an education welfare state—a society of open and lifelong education to allow each and every individual equal and easy access to education at any time and place.”