![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asian values: the saga continues
May. 23rd, 2009 07:29 amFormer President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea, whose reputation as an upstanding political leader had been tarnished recently by a corruption scandal, committed suicide on Saturday by jumping off a cliff near his retirement home, according to his aides and the police.
Mr. Roh, who had prided himself on being a clean politician during his term from 2003 to 2008, was questioned for 10 hours on April 30 by state prosecutors over his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal that has already landed some of his relatives and aides in jail.
“I can’t look you in the face because of shame,” Mr. Roh told reporters before he presented himself for questioning by prosecutors in Seoul, who had accused him of taking $6 million in bribes from a businessman while in office. “I apologize for disappointing the people.”
In his last posting on his Web site, on April 22, he wrote, “You should now discard me.”
He added: “I no longer symbolize the values you pursue. I am no longer qualified to speak for such things as democracy, progressiveness and justice.”
The genre is ascending here as political Islam, surging five years ago, has lost momentum among voters. The success of reality television — technically British in origin but identified here with American culture — reinforces the results of the country’s recent general election. In that election, voters seemed to be motivated by issues like good government and better living standards rather than the role of religion in society.
“A lot of people were taken aback by the Islamization of Indonesia, and the pendulum has swung back the other way,” said Mr. Heryanto, who recently became head of Southeast Asian studies at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Mr. Roh, who had prided himself on being a clean politician during his term from 2003 to 2008, was questioned for 10 hours on April 30 by state prosecutors over his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal that has already landed some of his relatives and aides in jail.
“I can’t look you in the face because of shame,” Mr. Roh told reporters before he presented himself for questioning by prosecutors in Seoul, who had accused him of taking $6 million in bribes from a businessman while in office. “I apologize for disappointing the people.”
In his last posting on his Web site, on April 22, he wrote, “You should now discard me.”
He added: “I no longer symbolize the values you pursue. I am no longer qualified to speak for such things as democracy, progressiveness and justice.”
***
The United States has long worried about the fate of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where radical Islamic groups staged a series of attacks against Western interests in the early years of this decade. But the country’s television viewers have embraced shows that, though not explicitly American, are American in their formats, conceits and, often, values. The genre is ascending here as political Islam, surging five years ago, has lost momentum among voters. The success of reality television — technically British in origin but identified here with American culture — reinforces the results of the country’s recent general election. In that election, voters seemed to be motivated by issues like good government and better living standards rather than the role of religion in society.
“A lot of people were taken aback by the Islamization of Indonesia, and the pendulum has swung back the other way,” said Mr. Heryanto, who recently became head of Southeast Asian studies at the Australian National University in Canberra.
“We’re trying to experiment with different versions of modernity, and this time American culture is in,” he said.
