▲ Park Geun Hye as elected candidate and the 18th president of South KoreaProvided by Park Geun Hye Transition Committee

Negative politics, economic demo- cratization, the Ahn Cheol-Soo phe-nomenon, the first female president, the shadow of previous presidents, and unity for change are all part of the 18th presidential election. However, out of all these ideas, everything start-ed with the call for change.

Calls For Change, Yearning for Unity

For every election, there is a common value that people yearn for. In 2002, it was the develop-ment of democracy. In 2007, it was eco-nomic prosperity. However, the 18th presidential elections started on a very vague note. Change was the theme. The majority of the public was fed up with the con-ventional political parties and their re-peated mistakes and corruptions. Sur-veys from Chosun Ilbo even suggested that over 70 percent of the population felt “fed-up” with the current political status quo. Before this yearning for change could be specified to become an actual theme of the election, it be-came a candidate.

The media and the public started to point at Ahn Cheol-Soo to become the beacon of change. This was even before Ahn had considered joining the race. A poll conducted by Chosun Ilbo in January 2012 showed that Ahn had an approval rate of 30 percent which was higher than that of Park and Moon Jae-In. This kind of support for a person who barely had political experience and intent of joining the presidential race was unprecedented and signified the people’s want for change. The 30 percent was seen as a support for change rather than Ahn. Ahn himself admitted on a talk show of the nature of people’s support when he said, “I understand that the people are not necessarily supporting me. It is the idea that I represent. Change.”

This change can be categorized into two types. One would be change that is called for in every presidential election. This would refer to solving the problems of the society, a type of change that would conventionally come up every five years. Five years ago, people wanted an economic reform to refuel the economy. In 2012, after five years of economic crisis and polarization of income, people were asking for economic equality and expanded welfare. Other key changes that were called for included a change in our foreign policies regarding North Korea, education, and taxes. The second type of change was a change of a more macroscopic change where Korea’s democracy was trying to shed its old regional and political feuds to develop into a more mature society.

An Ironic Twist of Events Under the name of change and unity, all three major candidates––Park, Moon, and Ahn––continued on the race. Every candidate focused on meeting the needs of the people and their want for change. As the months passed, the change that people yearned for started to become clear. Most prominent of those wishes was an alleviation of the economic polarization that had become more severe over the last five years. People required a fair share of opportunity and an economic environment that does not favor the wealthy.

Economic democratization became a centerpiece for all three candidates’ policies to meet the need of change for equality. Although there was a variance on the degree or the methodology of the policies, the essential aspects of the policy were more or less the same. Economic democratization was not the only policy that overlapped among the three major candidates.

Welfare policies that are supposed to be the line that differentiates the progressive from the conservative were also a common policy for the 18th election. All three candidates proposed increased spending on welfare, especially on education, tuition fees, and providing for the poor. As a result of the people’s desperate prayers for a leader who can unify the opinions of the public and the political sector, the three candidates ended up with seemingly similar policies that addressed the specified needs of change.

The only significant difference of the candidates’ policies were on foreign policy regarding North Korea. Park proposed a uncompromising stance on North Korea when she said, “I am open for negotiation. However, North Korea must first do their part in the agreements of the past. With-out their cooperation, I cannot help.” Moon took a more eased stance that followed the sunshine policy during the Roh administration in the past. Yet, these differences in the foreign policy sector had existed for decades and failed to change the voters’ origi-nal political preference. With all three candidates relatively undistinguishable by their policies, the standards for choosing the candidates were lost except for the standards that Korean citizens have stuck to, such as regionalism.

Old Habits Die Hard

With the candidates all muffled into one, the public was now perplexed on who to pick. Adding to the situation was Ahn’s sudden resignation as a candidate during the process of unifying with Moon due to disagreement regarding the process of candidate unification. As a result, the only moving piece of the 18th elections was now gone.

The only standards that put one candidate from another were the old standards that the people tried to get past through the change that the country was pursuing. These old habits were more alive than ever and the voting rates after the elections proved every one of the old tendencies.

These old standards include an old feud be-tween the Gyeongsang Province and Jeolla Prov-ince. The Gyeongsang Province was always famous for supporting the conservative party which would be Sae Nuri Party for this election. On the other hand, the Jeolla Prov-ince has always supported the candidate of the progres-sive party which was the Demo-cratic United Party. The support for each party from each region is not necessarily based on policies. Rather, it is based on a baseless belief that the candidate they supported would favor the development of a certain region as a recognition of the candidate’s gratitude.

This feud was represented in the votes. The North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu respectively showed a high approval rate for the conservative candidate, Park. 80.1 percent of the people that voted in Daegu chose Park over Moon. The North Gyeongsang Province was not so different with 80.9 percent supporting Park. In contrast, people in the North Jeolla Province and Gwangju showed a supporting rate of 86.3 percent and 92 percent respectively for candidate Moon.

Another old standard that was brought back was the older generation’s trust for President Park Jung Hee. Park Geun Hye, being the daughter of the former president criticized for his dictatorship but praised for great economic development during his term, especially in 1970’s, earned the support of the older generations just for the reason of being the strongman’s daughter. It was reported that over 65 percent of the older generation who over fifty were voted for Park. Hong Hyung Sik, director of Hangil Research and Consulting also pointed this standard to be the biggest variable that decided the result. He said, “Although many expected candidate Moon to pull through and win if the voting rate was high, the situation has changed a lot from a decade ago. The population ratio that the older generation makes up has increased significantly and this generation’s support for Park has triumphed in the last year’s elections.”

▲ Ahn Cheol Soo. the alternate candidate who resigned/ Provided by YTN

Park Geun Hye, First Steps as the President

Despite what may be said about the intentions of the people that voted for candidate Park, Park Geun Hye is now be appointed the 18th president of South Korea. Moreover, with a total voting rate of 75.8 percent and an approval rate of 51.6 percent, she is the first candidate in Korean history to be a candidate with the majority vote of the country. Outrunning Moon Jae-In by over a million votes, she became the first female president of Korea.

Now, as the 18th president of Korea, she must do her best to keep her promises. As Park was always known for her reputation as a politician of promises and principles, she said in her acceptance speech, “I hope to be the president that keeps the promises that I made. This election was a national victory and representation of hopes of the people.” She must now address the imminent problems that Korea is facing and must prepare to implement the policies that will fulfill what she promised.

 As of January 6, Park Geun Hye organized the transition committee consisting of experts and politicians from various fields to start preparing for the next administration. Technically speaking, her regime was yet to be launched at that time. Yet, all the eyes were on her as she and her carefully chosen committee was getting ready. To get an idea of how Korea’s next five years would be and whether it would address the change and unity that the citizens yearned for, looking at the members of the committee and Park’s first steps as elected candidate was a crucial chance in fact.

It is common that the members of the committee go on to become the members of the cabinet, so experts and the public alike were focusing on who consisted the committee. The key factors that Park considered in her choosing of members of transition committee seemed to be based on expertise and unity. This may have been due to the fact that the Lee administration was criticized for choosing a narrow spectrum of people from the president’s college alumni. Careful in her choice of personnel, she chose experts from each field such as Lee Joo Young who served as a judge and participated in reforming the judicial system during her time as a congressman and Park Kolleen, a famous music director. The committee focused on capturing both expertise and the flexibility to take into account all sectors of a nation for unity.

Park’s first visits and official actions as elected candidate were also significant since they can show her priorities. Economy and foreign policy were the two key highlights summarizing Park’s first moves. Park swiftly met and discussed matters with embassadors from China, the United States (U.S.), Japan, India, and the Middle East. She especially urged cooperation from the U.S. on halting North Korea’s missile and nuclear bomb tests. To address the economy, she prominently visited the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, discussing ways to promote innovation and create an environment where small and medium sized corporations can thrive. Park also showed her gratitude for various social classes and generations by participating in job fairs to meet with the younger generations and visiting retirement homes to meet with senior citizens, so many of whom voted for her. However, Park was criticized for being too private about her personnel choices and her inability to choose a prime minister with a clean record. Now ensconced in the Blue House, it is up to the president to prove herself the right person to lead Korea.