Online threat to democracy

Amid the extreme standoff between the ruling and opposition parties over the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, main opposition Democratic Party lawmakers supporting negotiations have given the public a hope of a new breakthrough in the stalemate. The lawmakers propose that opposition members will not oppose the deliberation of the accord if the Korean and U.S. governments promise to renegotiate the investor-state dispute settlement system. The proposal is supported by 45 Democratic Party lawmakers, more than half of the party’s legislators.

After the news was reported, Internet and social networking services users protested the proposal so intensely that the threat level could jeopardize representative democracy. Certain users are spreading a list of the names of Democratic Party lawmakers who support the agreement. The party leadership, which has bet its political life on the proposed unification of opposition forces, has pressured the pro-negotiation lawmakers to stop demanding negotiations.

Certain Twitter users and netizens also threatened lawmakers on the list to campaign against them in next year’s general elections. Aware of the power of online users, lawmakers changed their positions overnight or denied their support for negotiations. Democratic Party Rep. Kim Sung-gon is under police protection due to online threats against him. Korea cannot be considered a democracy if lawmakers cannot perform their parliamentary activities due to online threats.

Cyberspace is the only place where such behavior that shakes democracy occurs. On Thursday afternoon, protesters opposed to the free trade agreement who were demonstrating illegally by occupying the main boulevard in front of the National Assembly used violence against police officers in broad daylight. They kicked police officers who were trying to haul in the leaders of the protest. This was a brazen challenge to government authority on the same level as that of the 2008 anti-U.S. beef protests or the deadly 2009 demonstration against redevelopment in Seoul`s Yongsan district. A normal country has no demonstrators who beat law enforcement officers. If police hunker down helplessly over protesters’ violence, this country is no longer governed by the rule of law.

Korean society must join hands to fight online terrorism or attempts to neutralize the government`s power. In particular, the judiciary should not send the wrong signal to violent protesters by showing leniency.