Friday, March 12, 2004
Not Your Usual Politics
I didn't follow the Korean impeachment proceedings until Roh Moo-Hyun was actually suspended from his post. Not knowing the history of all this, I cannot pass judgment.
I did not root for Roh in the last election and was hoping that the GNP candidate would win, since Roh was, like Schroeder in Germany, provoking anti-US feelings as an election ploy (although less emphatically; after all, the South Koreans still need us to watch the DPRK bastards up north). Thankfully, Rumsfeld's musings of withdrawing US forces from the DMZ front lines eventually put a stop to that sheninigan.
But read this story about the actual impeachment vote, and be amazed at just how chaotic democracy can be. The last time I've heard of such insanity in a parliamentary chamber was the fistfights they had in the Taipei Legislative Yuan back in the Lee Tung-Hui (curse him to Hell) days. And this is still twenty times crazier.
And it's also very interesting how seemingly archaic rituals still hold so much power, like the Speaker's chair in the Korean National Assembly, or things like the mace closer to home (Canadian Parliament and US Congress). Who would've thought that a piece of furniture would make all the difference in an impeachment vote?
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