From what I read above she hasn’t done or said anything any leader wouldn’t have said. Was she supposed to fold in the face of NK or opposition leaders because they are men?
You mean leaders like President Obama or Speaker Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Reid? ;-)
I know what you meant GeronL — it's way too early to pass judgment on what sort of leader the new President Park will be — but sometimes for a leader to do what to conservatives is obviously the right thing is itself significant.
12 posted on 3/31/2013 3:18:19 PM by GeronL: “Was she supposed to fold in the face of NK or opposition leaders because they are men?”
By Korean standards, the answer to your question is not immediately obvious.
The simple fact is that a lot of Koreans would expect a woman to fold her cards and acquiesce to men. That goes double for conservative women. In Asian politics and business, just as with America in the 1950s, it is liberal feminist women, not conservative women, who stand up to men and fight back. President Park Geun-hye will, by her example, create a model for conservative women no matter what she does.
I hope her model is a good model for women. Time will tell.
For a female politician like the new President Park to stand up to North Korea or to male leaders in her own conservative Saenuri Party or male leaders of the chaebols (as Wuli pointed out) or male leaders of the opposition is nowhere near as easy as it is for Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin to attack male Democrats or male RINOs, or in Palin’s case, to attack the oil companies that have an outsized influence in Alaskan politics.
I am far from being an unmitigated fan of the new President Park. I know her family's history too well, which included harassment and sometimes outright persecution by her father, President Park Chung-hee, of Christian conservative leaders in South Korea, some of whom I knew personally. Even at this late date I cannot discuss some of that publicly because it could harm the families of people who are long dead.
Let's just say that South Korea, although the nation has a high percentage of evangelicals and many of them were key figures in both the anti-Japanese and anti-Communist movements, is not a historically Christian country.
The transition from an outspokenly Christian leader such as President Syngman Rhee, who was known for both Christian convictions and authoritarian rule, to subsequent military leaders such as President Park Chung-hee, who were known for authoritarianism and dedication to “traditional values” such as ancestor worship and morality based on Buddhism and Confucianism, did not always go well for Christians.
President Park Chung-hee understood that conservative Christians were not his natural enemies and focused mostly on attacking liberals and Communists. However, he didn't tolerate opposition to his rule from anyone, and a lot of people who in the United States would be considered right-wing conservative Christians suffered his wrath if they opposed his syncretistic religious practices and efforts to restore traditional Korean moral values.
This 2012 article from the Korea Times on the new President Park's views is an indicator of the problems Christian politicians still today have with older Buddhists in conservative Korean circles: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/09/116_118974.html
The new President Park's religious views are somewhat unclear. She's an electrical engineering graduate of Sogang University, a Jesuit school, and received a baptismal name while attending. She has spent some time taking graduate school classes from a conservative Presbyterian college.
However, her mother was a devout Buddhist and President Park Geun-hye doesn't attend religious services, whether Christian or Buddhist. From what I can tell, she believes that a moral foundation is important to society and religion is helpful but not essential to giving people that moral foundation.
By Western standards, that sounds like the older liberalism of someone like Thomas Jefferson.
However, to be fair to the new President Park, by Asian standards, it shows a degree of toleration for Christianity which is valuable. After all, “traditional values” for Asian society include things like ancestor worship which are fundamentally inimical to Christian principles.
What I can say is that I'm hopeful, and that if I were in South Korea, I'd be a lot happier with the South Korean president than I am right now as an American citizen with my president. Whatever problems the new President Park has, she is a lot better than President Obama.
We in the United States are abandoning our heritage and taking jackhammers to our moral and economic foundations at the same time that Asian countries are rediscovering much though not all of the moral foundations and economic freedom that created modern Western civilization.
That does not bode well for the future of America, and I have more hope for the future of South Korea than I do for the future of my own country.