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Corruption actually raises the stakes in a number of ways: it makes office-holding in places like India and elsewhere extremely lucrative. That makes leaders even more reluctant to leave office graciously. Being forced into the opposition can mean a serious financial loss—as well as possible legal trouble.

Fortunately, there are recent signs that Asian voters are slowly starting to reject politics as blood sport. Roh's impeachment earned him great public sympathy in Korea, boosting his party to a parliamentary win in 2004, and a majority of voters are now turning on the current protests as well. "If political attacks become too irrational or extreme, people come to their senses," says Prof. Lee Jung Hee of Hankook University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. The president's approval rating has rebounded from single digits in early June to about 20 percent today (several apologies and a cabinet reshuffle didn't hurt). Taiwan has grown much more stable since early this decade, when opposition leaders refused to even call the then President Chen by his title, tried to oust him through street protests and claimed he'd rigged an assassination on his own life (despite a total lack of evidence). Professor Liao says those events were actually a "vaccination" that made Taiwanese democracy stronger.

The real cost of the chaos, however, is the policies these nations have had to abandon in the process. South Korea's growth rate has slipped from 7 percent in 2002 to about 4 percent this year, and it could badly have used a shot in the arm. But since the protests began, Lee has had to step away from some of his bolder reform proposals. Thailand, too, faces a stalled economy, a serious food crisis and a stark rich-poor divide—which its gridlocked government is unlikely to address. In India, while Congress has weathered a many storms, reform has also ground to a halt, and the grand nuclear deal—which could have finally vaulted India into true great-power status—seems unlikely to survive attacks from the left. Constitutions and the trappings of democracy will probably persevere, in other words, as will individual leaders, but that's cold consolation for the region's citizens, who face lean times in the months ahead.

With Jonathan Adams in Taipei, B. J. Lee in Seoul, Sudip Mazumdar in New Delhi and Jaimie Seaton in Bangkok

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Member Comments

Posted By: accrew4 @ 07/11/2008 3:32:51 PM

Thailand with massive marches? Give me a break, these people are just a collection of malcontents with nothing better to do. They lost the election last year and are now doing everything possible to discredit the new Prime Minister and his Cabinet. I was in Bangkok - China Town, during the last part of June. The so called massive marches took place a little over 4 blocks from where my hotel was. These malcontents were causing traffic jams all over the center part of Bangkok, but little else. Starting at the Democracy Monument and then moving to the Government House after 30+ days of demonstrations. Originally they were calling for a confidence vote and trying to prevent changes being voted on to the Thailand's Consitution. The Peoples Democratic Party was using the press to sway public opion and to gain international attention. Guess it worked with the international press but the Thai's I talked to were ready for the whinners to go back home. .

The standing Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and his cabinet gave the PDP what they originally wanted. This only empowered the PDP and they continued the protest adding additional issues. The PDP have called for resigination of the Prime Minister, Interior Minister, and many others. They were also trying to make a issue of a pending World Heratige Site in Cambodia. Concerning a Temple site and boarder area that the World Court ruled on forty years ago. What this has to do with the present ruling government, who knows. But it makes good press. Ha! Ha!

In the USA what the PDP is doing would have been labelled as actively trying to overthrow the standing government. They would have been met at the Government House by armed troops and hauled off to the closest prison. Yea we support free speach in the USA.

The week I left Bangkok, the feeling of the majority of the Thai's I talked to. Was summed up by the PM saying, "Nothing was going to be done to the protesters as long as they are having fun." IMO the PM is giving these people just enough rope to hang themselves. Though according to the Interior Minister, "These protesters were in voilation of Thai Law and were looking at 6 year prison terms." I'm sure something is going to happen. But to give the PDP any credibility is just sad.
Posted By: olderwiser @ 07/07/2008 8:28:00 PM

Nins, it is unexplainable how voters are so distracted by who wears lapel pins, and then decide to vote for lapel pins and against one who might not have put his hand over his heart when the flag drove by. You can tell people how the Mc Cain plan continues to pick the pockets of ordinary middle class people and stick the cash into the pockets of the shareholders of insurance companies, and they might just turn around and vote for some fake patriotic BS. We continue to somehow survive this but I am not convinced that it can last too long if people don't wake up and throw these thieves out into the street.
Posted By: Nins @ 07/07/2008 1:28:15 PM

Did you know that if McCain is elected you will have to pay income tax on the value of the medical insurance that your employer gives you? Worse still, he is offering a tax break for people who pay their own insurance, BUT only $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families.

Let's say you have a family of four. Your insurance policy costs would be at least $1,500-2,500 per month under a self-pay plan, which cost more than employer group plans. So, you pay $18,000 -$30,000 per year for insurance, and you get to deduct only $5,000 of that. If you paid $25,000 for you insurance, you would be out of pocket $20,000 per year. This is FAR WORSE than the current system, where if you are self employed you can deduct 100% of you medical insurance costs.

So, if you're not self employed, you would stick with your Employer's plan. Employer plans for a family of four have a value of $900-$1,500 per month totaling 10,800-$18,000 per year. Surprise! On April 15th, you owe tax on all of that as INCOME to you. Say your bracket is 25%, and the value of your Employer medical plan is $14,000. You will OWE THE IRS an additional $3,500, and that's ON TOP of whatever monthly premium you already pay to your employer for your insurance.

Many analysts say that McCain's new rules would encourage employers to stop offering health benefits. If that happened, then far fewer Americans would be insured than are insured today, because what family of four can afford $18,000-$30,000 out of pocket per year for self-pay health insurance?

Furthermore, McCain's plan does not require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions of people who self-pay their insurance. People under employer group plans have all of their pre-existing conditions covered. This is a hugely unfair aspect of the current system. Insurance companies can afford to cover the pre-existing conditions of the much larger pool of people with group insurance, but they refuse to pay the pre-existing conditions on the smaller pool of self-pay customers. They have been allowed to price gouge the self-pay customers, which is a form of market manipulation that should be illegal.

So let's say one of your kids had diabetes and you have high blood pressure, then your employer stops offering insurance. You now have to buy your own, but you and your child are INELIGIBLE due to pre-existing conditions. Oh, yeah, they will let you buy the insurance, but you can't use it for any pre-existing condition until you have paid on time every month for two years. And you know what happens at one year and 11 months? You get a letter saying your policy has been cancelled. I have many patients this has happened to.

McCain's plan SUCKS.

It does nothing to help middle class working Americans afford or obtain medical insurance. In fact, it makes the current system WORSE.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/04/29/mccain_unveils_health_care_pla.html?nav=rss_email/components