Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 7, 2022, Winnipeg, Manitoba <§> PAGE A8A8 NEWS I WORLD MONDAY,MARCH7,2022 • WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Strong language used in race for president ofAsian nation <s>South Korea election campaign heats up HYUNG-JIN KIM SEOUL, South Korea — The race between South Korea’s two leading presidential candidates has seen unprecedented levels of toxic rhetoric, mudslinging and lawsuits. How bad is it? “Hitler,” “beast,” and “parasite” are some of the choicer insults levelled by both camps. Some are even calling it The Squid Game Election, in reference to Netflix’s megahit survival drama where people are killed if they lose children’s games. And the stakes? There’s widespread speculation that the loser will be arrested. “It’s a dreadful presidential election when the losing contender faces prison. Please survive this dogfight in the mire!” senior opposition politician Hong Joon-pyo wrote on Facebook. Just days before Wednesday’s election, Lee Jae-myung from the liberal governing Democratic Party and Yoon Suk Yeol from the main conservative opposition People Power Party are locked in an extremely tight race. Their negative campaigns are aggravating South Korea’s already severe political divide at a time when it faces a battered, pandemic-hit economy, a balancing act over competition between its main ally, Washington, and its top trade partner, China, and a raft of threats and weapons tests from rival North Korea. Opinion surveys show that both candidates have more critics than supporters. “Isn’t our national future too bleak with an unpleasant and bitter presidential election that calls for choosing the lesser of two evils?” the mass-circula-tion Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said in an editorial. Yoon has slammed Lee over his possible ties to an allegedly corrupt land development scandal. Lee has denied any connection, and in turn has tried to link Yoon to the same scandal, while separately criticizing him for his reported ties to shamanism — an ancient, indigenous religious belief. There have also been attacks on the candidates’ wives, both of whom have been forced to apologize over separate AHNYOUNG-JOON/THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILES Yoon SukYeol, centre, the presidential candidate ofthe People Power Party, is greeted by supporters in Seoul, South Korea on Feb. 15. scandals. Yoon described Lee’s party as “Hitler” and “Mussolini” while an associate called Lee’s purported aides “parasites.” Lee’s allies called Yoon “a beast,” “dictator” and “an empty can” and derided his wife’s alleged plastic surgery. Their campaign teams and supporters have filed dozens of lawsuits charging libel and the spread of false information, among other issues. “This year’s presidential election has been more overwhelmed by negative campaigning than any other previous election, and the mutual hatred won’t easily die down after the election,” said Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership. Among the fault lines in the electorate are South Korean regional rivalries, views on North Korea, a conflict between generations, economic inequality and women’s rights issues. Yoon is more popular with older voters and those in the southeastern region of Gyeongsang, where past conservative and authoritarian leaders came from. His supporters typically advocate a stronger military alliance with the United States and a tougher line on North Korea, and they credit past authoritarian rulers for quickly developing the economy after the Korean War. Lee enjoys greater support from younger people and those from Jeolla province, Gyeongsang’s rival region in the southwest. His supporters generally want an equal footing in relations with the United States and rapprochement with North Korea while being extreme ly critical of past authoritarian rulers’ human rights records. In a notable development, many surveys showed Yoon has gotten greater approval ratings than Lee from voters aged 18 and 29, most of whom were born after South Korea became a developed country. “They didn’t experience poverty and dictatorships. _ They are very critical of China and North Korea, and they have rather friendly feelings toward the U.S. and Japan,” said Park Sung-min, head of Seoul-based MIN Consulting, a political consulting firm. South Korea’s deep divisions are reflected in the troubles of the last three leaders. Their supporters say intense corruption investigations after they left office were politically motived by their rivals. Amid a corruption probe of his family, former liberal President Roh Moo-hyun jumped to his death in 2009, a year after he left office. His successor, the conservative Lee Myung-bak, and Lee’s conservative successor, Park Geun-hye, were separately convicted of a range of crimes, including corruption, and given lengthy prison terms after Roh’s friend and current President Moon Jae-in took office in 2017. Park was pardoned in December, but Lee is still serving a 17-year prison term. Moon’s government took a big hit with a scandal involving Moon’s former justice minister and close associate, Cho Kuk. Cho and his family members are alleged to have participated in financial crimes and the faking of credentials to help Cho’s daughter enter medical school. Cho was seen as a reformist and potential liberal presidential hopeful. Moon’s early attempts to keep Cho in office split the public, with his critics calling for Cho’s resignation and supporters rallying to his side during big street protests. Yoon originally served as Moon’s prosecutor general and spearheaded investigations of previous conservative governments. But he eventually left Moon’s government and joined the opposition last year after conflict with Moon’s allies over the Cho case helped him emerge as a potential presidential contender. “Cho’s case was a watershed in South Korean politics. It made Yoon a presidential candidate, and many in their 20s and 30s switched their support from Moon,” Choi, the institute director, said. During a recent TV debate, Yoon and Lee agreed not to launch politically motivated investigations against the other side if they win. But some question their sincerity. In a newspaper interview last month, Yoon said that if elected, his government would investigate possible wrongdoing by the Moon government and also the land development scandal that Lee has been allegedly linked to. —The Associated Press Retirement) Residence™ ,IH( "& jUffllTHRSr HR MB IIHarris travels to key site in voting rights struggle ✓ Stay Active ✓ New Friends ✓ Be Engaged ✓ Great Food at River Ridge ✓ 24 Hour Nursing Staff ✓ Month to Month Leases ✓ Warm, Family Environment ✓ Pet Friendly Elegantly Furnished Suites Available for ímwedíateoccupi^ CaW & & & « 204.202.1793 % River Ridge I 50 Ridgecrest Ave. 204.589.2273 KILDONAN PARK S3 All Seniors Care' LIVING CENTRES Where Caring is Our Number One Concern™ www.allseniorscare.com mm PROUDLY & & & CANADIAN ^MKExclustvely ^OLA SUPPORTED KIMCHANDLER SELMA, Ala. — Vice President Kamala Harris visited Selma, Ala., on Sunday to commemorate a defining moment in the fight for equal voting rights, even as congressional efforts to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act have faltered. Under a blazing blue sky, Harris linked arms with rank-and-file activists from the civil rights movement and led thousands across the bridge where, on March 7,1965, white state troopers attacked Black voting rights marchers attempting to cross. The images of violence at the Edmund Pettus Bridge — originally named for a Confederate general — shocked the nation and helped galvanize support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. Harris called the site hallowed ground where people fought for the “most fundamental right of America citizenship: the right to vote.” “Today, we stand on this bridge at a different time,” Harris said in a speech before the gathered crowd. “We again, however, find ourselves caught in between. Between injustice and justice. Between disappointment and determination. Still in a fight to form a more perfect union. And nowhere is that more clear than when it comes to the ongoing fight to secure the freedom to vote.” The nation’s first female vice president — as well as the first African American and Indian American in the role — spoke of marchers whose “peaceful protest was met with crushing violence. They were kneeling when the state troopers charged. They were praying when the billy clubs struck.” Police beat and tear-gassed the marchers, fracturing the skull of young activist John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement who went on to long and celebrated career as a Georgia congressman. President Joe Biden on Sunday renewed his call for the passage of voting legislation, saying the groundbreaking 1965 Voting Rights Act “has been weakened not by brute force, but by insidious court decisions.” The proposed legislation is named for Lewis, who died in 2020, and is part of a broader elections package that collapsed in the U.S. Senate earlier this year. “In Selma, the blood of John Lewis and so many other courageous Americans sanctified a noble struggle. We are determined to honor that legacy by passing legislation to protect the right to vote and uphold the integrity of our elections,” Biden said in a statement. Democrats have been unsuccessfully trying to update the landmark law and pass additional measures to make it more convenient for people to vote. A key provision of the law was tossed out by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2013. Among those gathered Sunday were rank-and-file activists from the 1965 march. Harris walked BRYNN ANDERSON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris speaks at the historic bridge where state troopers attacked civil rights activ-istsin1965. across the bridge beside Charles Mauldin, who was sixth in line behind Lewis on Bloody Sunday and was beaten with a night stick. Two women who fled the violence said having a Black woman as vice president seemed unimaginable 57 years ago. “That’s why we marched,” said Betty Boynton, the daughter-in-law of voting rights activist Amelia Boynton. “I was at the tail end and all of the sudden I saw these horses. Oh my goodness, and all of the sudden _ I saw smoke. I didn’t know what tear gas was. They were beating people,” Boynton said recalling Bloody Sunday. But Boynton said the anniversary is tempered by fears of the impact of new voting restrictions being enacted. “And now they are trying to take our voting rights from us. I wouldn’t think in 2022 we would have to do all over again what we did in 1965,” Boynton said. Ora Bell Shannon, 90, of Selma, was a young mother during the march and ran from the bridge with her children. Ahead of Bloody Sunday, she and other Black citizens stood in line for days at a time trying to register to vote in the then white-controlled city, facing impossible voter tests and long lines. “They knew you wouldn’t be able to pass the test,” Shannon recalled. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 gutted a portion of the 1965 law that required certain states with a history of discrimination in voting, mainly in the South, to get U.S. Justice Department approval before changing the way they hold elections. — The Associated Press A_08_Mar-07-22_FP_01.indd 8 2022-03-06 9:43 PM ;