Monday, November 14, 2011

Castell's Mobile Case Study: No Sa Mo in Korea - two sides of Mobile civil society

It was interesting that Castell introduces one of case studies on mobile civil society referring to Nosamo in Korea. As Castell explains, Nosamo is acronym for "No"moohyun "Sa"rang "M"oim: which means the group of people who loves Mr. Moohyun Noh (the former Korean president). When he was elected as the president in Korea in 2002, every single Koreans were surprised since majority of Koreans did not anticipate that he would actually be elected as a president of Korea.
As Castell introduced in his article, it can be said that president Noh was truly elected by mobile civil society who were 20s or 30s years old and who want to change their government. The democracy in Korea was recently formed until late 1990s, Korea cannot say democracy is embedded transparently in the society before then. Government even manipulated the election. Korea had a really strong government (we have a very unique nickname of "MOFIA" for politicians who used work at the Ministry of Finance (MOF) because they have tremendous power in politics). The government planned and controlled over the Korea under the name of "development." Koreans were forced to be pro-government and Koreans need to follow its government because economic develop was needed for recovering the nation from the Korean war as well as Korea is in the war against North Korea.
As consequence, young Koreans used not to pay that much attentions to politics because they know that they cannot change the government. When president Noh was in presidential election, however, young Koreans see some hope that they can change the nation using "mobile" with major role of Nosamo. Through mobile, young people exchange their information how good Mr. Noh is as a president and they encourage their peers to vote for him. And President Noh has elected as a president. Young people were enthusiastic to see how he will change the country. However, he failed to response to young people because the Korean political ground is too harsh for him to make a decision.
Whenever president Noh tried to do something, the congress do not pass it and they also make a lot of criticism on him. At last they attempted to drag him down from a president using the parliament system law. And young people disappointed to president Noh. Following president Noh, the person from the major Party (which against President Noh was elected). After complete his presidency period, notorious rumors were followed after him. His families were suspected of bribery. Ironically, this rumor was transmitted through mobile and President Noh has suffered a lot from this. At last, he chose to kill himself in order to improve that he is innocent to people.
Mobile can help president Noh to be elected as a president but it also played a significant role make him to be suffered and choose to be suicide.

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