Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
It has been a testing week for democracy across Europe and Asia. But the good news is that, by and large, countries that trust the people to decide who governs them are weathering the storm. This outcome is by no means final or certain, nor can it be in an era when authoritarian, dictatorial and illiberal regimes are advancing. It is now commonplace, indeed normal, for democratic electoral processes to be subverted, disrupted and disputed from within and by external forces using clandestine, hybrid methods. The latest upheavals also come amid signs of regression in the US, the country most closely identified with democratic rights and freedoms.
A video of a young South Korean woman seizing the barrel of a soldier’s rifle during scuffles outside the national assembly in Seoul last week provided one of those symbolic moments when the unending battle between right and might is captured for the world to see. The footage of Ahn Gwi-ryeong, a former TV anchor who is spokesperson for South Korea’s opposition Democratic party, was watched by millions. “Are you not ashamed?” she asked the soldier. Thousands of other people, many young or younger than she is, showed similar courage. They formed protective human chains around the parliament building as lawmakers gathered to vote down President Yoon Suk Yeol’s unjustified and outrageous declaration of martial law.
