KCPAC 2020 ROK-USA Conference
4.15 General Election Analysis
Grand Hyatt Hotel, Seoul, South Korea
Fraud elections devastate and terrify democracy of the free world
It is my honor to be here with you today to discuss election fraud, the erosion of democracy globally, and the role of the US in shoring up democracy around the world. On topic of election fraud in South Korea during the General Election of April 15 2020, sadly what we see happening in South Korea is not new. It is not unique to South Korea. It is a pattern that is, like the Covid-19 virus, creeping into the democratic body politic around the world.
A recent US government report identified factors that undermine democracy globally. It found that electoral processes have been undermined more than any other democratic freedom in the last few years. Let us think about this for a moment.
Throughout the world, the basic right to elect leadership is being undermined by autocracies as they find ways to control results. Yet they keep the illusion of competitive balloting by undermining the very mechanisms of the voting machine through big data and collusion with software companies working as fronts with nefarious governments. What is increasingly common around the world are polls where the outcome is shaped by coercion, fraud, gerrymandering, or other mode of manipulation.
Our right to elect our own representatives is one of the key ways that people in democracies express themselves politically. Many see voting as a moral duty – in some countries like Australia it is the law. A duty to protect ourselves, and our fellows, as citizens. We believe, when we vote, that our individual vote makes a difference. But what happens when our individual votes have little instrumental value because they are undermined by larger processes aimed at rigged outcomes? Rigging elections is inherently antidemocratic.
The US is not immune from these attacks on representational democracy. Shockingly, the US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has implemented a proxy voting scheme so that she can control how every member of her party votes on bills in Congress. The chamber of Congress that is supposed to be “the Peoples House” has become “the Pelosi House.” Similarly disturbing, the governor of New Jersey has ordered that mail-in ballots be sent to every voter in his state, but there is nothing to prevent these same voters from also going to a voting location on election day to cast a second ballot. If this is allowed to stand, I promise you that far more ballots will be cast than the number of eligible voters in the state.
This has been the case globally for the last few years. The military and other security forces influenced key Asian elections and carried out gross rights violations against minorities. In Cambodia, the military and police military and police openly campaigned for the ruling party. That party won all the seats in the legislature. Pakistan’s elections were competitive, but the military’s influence over the courts and the media was widely thought to have tilted the contest in favor of Imran Khan, who took office as prime minister. In Myanmar, the military was accused by UN investigators of committing genocide against the Rohingya people, over 700,000 of whom have fled to Bangladesh since the start of a violent crackdown in 2017. In China, it is estimated that over a million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs, and Hui have been forced into “reeducation” centers. We are seeing more and more reports of the rights violations emerging from within those camps.
Meanwhile, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping secured a potential life tenure when the National People’s Congress rubber-stamped a decision to remove the constitution’s two-term limit on the presidency. In Russia, a referendum passed allowing Putin to remain in power as President until 2036.
Over in South America, in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro extended his authoritarian rule with a profoundly flawed presidential election characterized by bans on prominent opposition candidates and voter intimidation. Maduro has presided over an economic collapse and accompanying humanitarian crisis that has left millions struggling to meet their basic needs.
In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega pursued a ferocious crackdown on a nationwide antigovernment protest movement, with violence by state forces and allied armed groups resulting in hundreds of deaths. The harsh conditions in Nicaragua and Venezuela have added to the region’s already substantial migration crisis.
So what we saw in South Korea’s April 15 General Election should come as no surprise to us. However, it still does because we associate South Korea with democracy and the rule of law. Since South Korea emerged from authoritarian rule in 1987 up to the present we have witnessed a robust democracy and corresponding economic growth. Citizens who engage their civil right to protest and demand the leadership that represents them. Instead, lately, we are seeing something that resembles the North Korean style of representation more and more.
Around the world, global freedoms have diminished over the past 15 consecutive years. We have seen global freedom backsliding among new democracies compounded by the erosion of political rights and civil liberties among established democracies such as South Korea and the United States.
Just as we in America have called out foreign leaders for undermining democratic norms in their countries, we must draw attention to the same sorts of warning signs in the United States and in allied countries. Let us admit that the US has an irreplaceable role as a champion of global freedom, it is a priority we cannot ignore.
The difficulties facing democracy in the United States didn’t begin with the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The health of US democracy has been undermined since before 2017. We have seen intensified political polarization and the weaponization of our government against political opponents. And when it comes to facts, we know those are something of a bygone era. Social media platforms based in Silicon Valley, which have a decidedly left-wing preference, censor speech of conservative voices and curate content to promote a far-left agenda.
Similarly, Bellicose partisan media also impacts the health of our democracy. Prior presidents have contributed to pressure on our system by eroding the rights of American citizens. To wit: Surveillance programs such as the bulk collection of communications metadata, initially undertaken by the George W. Bush administration, and the Obama administration’s overzealous crackdown on press leaks are two cases in point.
America’s system of democracy is robust, but that doesn’t mean it will continue as such. Let’s look elsewhere. In Venezuela and Turkey, human rights agencies have reported that democratic institutions gradually succumbed to sustained pressure from an antidemocratic leadership.
So we have a lot at stake. We have heard the calls that the US is losing its influence and role as a democratic and human rights respecter globally. We have to admit that countries around the world look to the US as one of the world’s oldest functioning democracies. Yet, we are seeing a deterioration in US democratic values and free speech rights just as we see it globally in countries we are allied with such as South Korea.
For over four years the Left in America claimed that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election. It turns out that not only was that allegation false, but it was actually the Hillary Clinton campaign that paid Russian operatives to draft a bogus “dossier” which was then used by the Obama Administration to spy on her political opponent. The continuing deterioration of US democracy will hasten the ongoing decline in global democracy. Indeed, it has already done so.
In his first inaugural address, Ronald Reagan declared, “As we renew ourselves here in our own land, we will be seen as having greater strength throughout the world. We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom.” Nearly four decades later, the idea that the United States is such an exemplar is being steadily discredited.
If we are to assess democracy, we must assess corruption and transparency. In the case of the United States, and in South Korea, we see much corruption and little transparency. What happened in Korea on April 15 2020? We saw officials use their positions to enrich themselves politically. They tolerated conflicts of interest to sow public doubts about their motivations. The result of this is that citizens lose faith in the system and begin to avoid their own responsibilities, including paying taxes, participating in elections, and obeying the law in general. To avoid such decay, it is imperative that government and citizens alike uphold ethical rules and norms against corruption.
The United States benefits from a number of strong protections, including independent courts, congressional oversight mechanisms, and active monitoring by the media and civil society. The majority of Americans, 71 percent, believe the US government should actively support democracy and human rights in other countries. But America’s commitment to the global progress of democracy has been seriously compromised.
Today’s program brings us to that place where we can address the faults of the system in South Korea’s democracy. To do otherwise is to risk South Korea slipping into the hands of authoritarianism once again, perhaps never to emerge again. And that, I also fear, could be a harbinger of additional failures around the globe.
