smokehard

If you are the owner of a large corporation and you want to commit fraud, embezzlement and/or assault, Korea is the perfect country for you to do so…and get away with it.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea announced on Tuesday sweeping pardons for some of the country’s most powerful businessmen, including the head of leading carmaker Hyundai Motor, saying they were needed to help revive a troubled economy.

They were on a list of 341,000 executives, politicians and bureaucrats subject to special pardons signed by President Lee Myung-bak to mark Friday’s Liberation Day. (Link)

It must be nice being able to pardon over 340,000 people. I wonder how many of them were of the ‘poor indentured servant‘ variety? I know Korea still puts people in prison to work off debt. I wonder how many of them were pardoned?

“It is hoped that the businessmen would take the lead in reviving the economy by creating jobs through active investment and exploring markets abroad,” the ministry said in a statement on the pardons. (Link)

Revive the economy? Create jobs? Whatever happened to the RULE OF FUCKING LAW? No matter how powerful the Korean economy is/gets, if the rule of law is not enforced, the country as a whole will not move forward? Even war-mongering America put the Enron folks in jail. These pardons do nothing to make Korea more transparent. These pardons do nothing toward getting FDI to return. They simply reward the Korean rich, and do nothing to improve society on the whole. If rich people can do it, why can’t the guy selling rice cake down in the market, or a taxi driver? The fact that the rich are getting away with these crimes simply gives more people the impression they can do it too.

The worst part? I am probably more discusted by these pardons than the average Korean citizen. For them, its just part and parcel to being a native of this great land.