As a movie lover, I watch one movie every weekday and up to three movies on weekends. One evening after work, I searched for comedy films at Klik Film. Found it! Honest Candidate with Ra Mi-ran in the poster! I LOVE Ra Mi-ran since finishing the hit series Reply 1988 in Indonesia. No doubts! Ra Mi-ran is a guarantee a movie will be funny.
This film tells the story of Joo Sang-sook, played by Ra Mi-ran, who is conducting a Legislative Election campaign for the Hyuntan City constituency. As one of the candidates selected for a seat from a single representative constituency, Jo will certainly face an extraordinary contest. Fighting is Jo's ninja way, and lying is the key to Jo's success in surviving three periods.
Jo was first elected because of her actions against insurance companies that apply fraudulent policies to the poor. However, in the second and third periods, Jo turns into a bad politician who lies a lot.
Once, the grandmother, Kim Ok-hee, prayed that Jo would stop lying. This prayer overturns Jo's image of caring, polite, and modest. However, she is not a politician if she can't take advantage of the situation. Jo is now making a slogan as "The most honest politician in this country".
Difficult to be elected, Jo lied to be liked by voters
"There are not many women in South Korea elected through the single-member district system," said Yesola Kweon and Josh M. Ryan in their interesting journal article. The mixed-member system (MMP) election system implemented in Korea, with only 47 seats selected by the proportional representative (PR) system and 253 elected in the single-member district (SMD), makes women not many nominated, and if there is a candidate running in that electoral district, men are elected more often.
There were only 57 women parliamentarians elected from a total of 300 parliamentary seats (unicameral or one chamber), or 19 percent, of the results of the 2020 Legislative Election. In various online media, we can find reports that even though the 15 April 2020 Legislative Election was the first election after the Movement #MeToo in Korea, women candidates are often victims of hate speech, political violence, and discrimination.
This phenomenon is shown in the film Honest Candidate. Appearing as a woman who is "too tough" is not liked by society. “Your image is too masculine,” says Park, Jo's personal assistant, at the beginning of the film, when Jo's campaign team watches Jo's campaign video. In another scene, with the curse of not being able to lie, Jo appears with vulgar statements. An irritated Jo blurted out, "If only I were a boy, I wouldn't be belittled."
Appearing as a woman is not enough, just as men politicians don't have to pretend to live a simple life or be laughed at for not being creative enough, or make ridiculous statements. Women politicians are required to have the courage to face all the wrath of anger, but at the same time, society "teaches" her to remain obedient. Jo has no domestic problems. Her husband supports her political career because he is economically dependent on Jo.
Because women politicians don't get the privilege of “habitual”, Jo has to do a lot of lies and political gimmicks. She had to play the humble Jo: wear worn-out shoes and live in a tiny 65-meter flat, and pretend to be friendly and caring to everyone. In fact, Jo pretends that his grandmother Ok-hee has died.
Kim Ok-hee was a member of the Council for the Hyuntan City constituency before Jo entered politics. “After Ok-hee died,” Jo founded the Ok-hee Foundation which provides scholarships to Korean students. In other words, Jo inherited her grandmother's electoral district (a privilege), and built a political career by capitalizing on her grandmother's image as a senior politician who had contributed to the citizens of Hyuntan City.
The performance of women legislators has accelerated thanks to one electoral district list PR
As mentioned earlier, the difficulty of becoming a woman legislator in South Korea is caused by the society which is still conservative, and as a result of the electoral system (more candidates are elected from single-represented districts). In fact, the presence of women is a political representation, both symbolic, descriptive, and substantive representations. Women have a greater basic preference for pursuing women's substantive representation because of the common background of social experience. There have been many empirical studies showing that women legislators in industrialized and developing countries sponsor more laws regarding women, children, and marginalized groups.
The case of South Korea, referring to the research results of Yesola Kweon and Josh M. Ryan, shows that women elected from the PR electoral district (there is only one electoral district, namely the national electoral district) have better acceleration in succeeding for women’s issue bills. Because they are not confronted by voters in the local electoral district directly (with various contents of the voter's head), women legislators who are elected from the PR list are freer to propose women’s issue bills. In fact, this phenomenon does not only occur in women but also in men legislators from the PR list.
“…compared to PR, the SMD system creates less incentive for lawmakers to focus on issues important to members of groups who are traditionally underrepresented.”
Kweon and Ryan also found that men legislators elected through SMD were the least likely to propose or pass women’s issue bills. The electoral system shapes this behavior. SMD produces more often men legislators, and because the elections are candidate-centered, this gives candidates a great deal of accountability. While the legislators of the PR system tend to focus on bills that target a wider group of individuals, SMD politicians make laws that are more specific to local interests.
This systemic impact, coupled with the deep-rooted pattern of discrimination in South Korea, has made women elected from the SMD system less successful in passing the bill. However, this can be indicated by the presence of women legislators, as well as men legislators, who were elected through the PR system.
The electoral system and discrimination (also double standards) of society against women and men candidates certainly need a different solution. In the electoral system, a provisional affirmation policy can be applied. South Korea has actually implemented it. For SMD constituencies, parties are required to ensure that they nominate at least 30 percent of women from the total candidates nominated. However, there are no sanctions for parties that violate this provision. Sanctions only exist (the party list submitted is rejected and the party registration is canceled) for parties that do not nominate a minimum of 50 percent women from the total number of candidates nominated in PR list.
For societal discrimination against women, a long-term solution is the most reasonable. One of them is through education. Education is a political product, the curriculum and materials are determined by the state. Changing the perspective of women requires an inclusive education struggle and state intervention. The state, as has been proven from the cases of various countries including Indonesia, is powerful in forming a new culture in society. Without a state that takes sides and is committed to promoting justice and gender inclusion, women, including Jo who has the privilege of an influential grandmother and a supportive husband, will find it difficult to appear as genuine politicians. Moreover, the wave of 'abolishing the women's quota system' was called even by male politicians. A safe and genial public sphere can guarantee more women to appear and have a good role in politics.[]
AMALIA SALABI
This article translated by Catherine Natalia
