Landslide victory
Editorial
The Statesman, India
The landslide victory of President Moon Jae-in has been attributed primarily to his response to the pandemic. In a very real sense, the voters have rewarded him with another spectacular innings at the crease in Seoul.
This in itself is testament to the resilience of democracy at a devastating juncture for the world. The other critical feature is the victory of the pro-left, by South Korean standards. Mr Moon's left-leaning Democratic Party and its smaller affiliate won 180 seats in the 300-seat assembly - the biggest majority by any party in the National Assembly since the South's transition to democracy in 1987.
The conservative opposition United Future Party and its smaller sister party won 103 seats. Before the outbreak, observers had expected Mr Moon's party to struggle, with job creation, wages and North Korea's nuclear weapons programme dominating the political agenda.
His approval rating fell to 30 per cent in 2019 amid an economic slowdown and a political scandal involving the then justice minister. But Mr Moon's response to the coronavirus outbreak has seen his approval rating jump from 41 per cent in late January to 57 per cent, according to Gallup polls.
His "coronavirus diplomacy" has done the opposition in. The strategy was marked by interaction over the phone with other world leaders who were eager to learn from South Korea's response. The outcome of the election reaffirms that this boosted public support for the administration in Seoul.
Mr Moon had successfully portrayed the outbreak as an opportunity for South Korea to restructure its economy, capitalising on such industries as artificial intelligence and biopharma.
Lessons from South Korea
Richard Heydarian
Philippine Daily Inquirer,
The Philippines
In perhaps the most comprehensive survey of its kind, the Hong Kong-based Deep Knowledge Ventures ranked 150 nations' response to the Covid-19 pandemic based on four key elements: quarantine efficiency, including the timely and effective imposition of travel restrictions; monitoring and detection, including mass testing and contact tracing quality; emergency treatment readiness, focusing on the quality of healthcare institutions; and overall government management efficiency.
South Korea, which relied on mass testing without locking down major cities, topped the list among Asia-Pacific nations, ranking among the best in the world, alongside Germany and Israel. In fact, eight countries in the top 10 are from the Asia-Pacific region.
China's ranking, meanwhile, raised eyebrows, with Deep Knowledge Ventures founder Dmitry Kaminskiy admitting that the communist regime's numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.
Not long ago, South Korea was the site of one of the world's worst outbreaks, and faced travel bans across the world. As recently as Feb 28, more than 1.3 million citizens called for the impeachment of President Moon Jae-in, who failed to prevent the outbreak through effective travel restrictions and monitoring mechanisms.
Mr Moon, who came to power based on a promise of historic peace on the Korean peninsula and economic justice amid rising inequality, faced the greatest crisis of his career. Instead of blaming people for its failures, however, the government responded with decisive measures, including unprecedented drive-through mass testing facilities, specialised software and drones-based contact tracing and monitoring mechanisms, and an all-out public information campaign.
When faced with an existential crisis, South Korea responded with participatory democracy. Within weeks, the government turned the tide, transforming a supposed failure into a global model of success. And two weeks ago, the ruling party scored a major electoral victory as grateful citizens, who braved the plague scare to cast their votes, rewarded Mr Moon for his remarkable exercise of leadership.
What the Korean story shows is that there is always a "second chance" to make up for earlier mistakes. It also shows that even arguably the world's most demanding citizens are willing to reward corrections built on humility, decisive leadership and effective management. The Philippines has a lot to learn from South Korea.
Moon should address problems now
Editorial
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who has two years left in office, has strengthened his political footing. The question now is whether he will be able to make good use of this to achieve results in domestic and diplomatic affairs.
The ruling party's overwhelming victory indicates that voters evaluated favourably the South Korean government's response in dealing with the virus outbreak.
Mr Moon should keep in mind that South Korea's structural problems cannot necessarily be solved simply by the ruling party's victory.
Young people's difficulty in finding jobs and the weakness of an economy that relies on China remain unresolved. Ruling party supporters and opposition forces continue to clash over scandals involving the former justice minister as well as the pros and cons of reforming the prosecution authority.
A review of South Korea's foreign and security policies has also been urged.
Although the Moon administration attaches importance to exchanges and cooperation with North Korea, Pyongyang refuses to engage in inter-Korea dialogue, and relations between the two countries have stalled.
Negotiations between the United States and North Korea on North Korea's nuclear and missile development programmes have also made little progress.
The US-South Korea alliance has been strained because of the issue of Seoul's burden regarding the cost of stationing US troops in South Korea. South Korea should give top priority to maintaining the alliance.
Conflicts over the issue of "former requisitioned workers" from the Korean peninsula should not be allowed to hinder bilateral relations. It is necessary that the Moon administration first of all moves to solve the problem.
• The View From Asia is a compilation of articles from The Straits Times' media partner Asia News Network, a grouping of 24 news media titles.
