Syria to South Korea: An age of uncertainty? 

As if the Syrian upheaval wasn’t historic enough, last week saw another surreal development: the declaration of martial law in one of the world’s most prosperous democracies. Confronting political sterility and collapsing approval ratings, President Yoon Suk-yeol went for the nuclear option, just to see his short-lived martial law stymied by fierce resistance from both the Parliament, including his own party mates as well as South Korea’s fearless civil society, who collectively resisted military forces until the president backed down.

Not long after, South Korean prosecutors arrested former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun on charges of treason; Yoon narrowly avoided impeachment while mulling potential resignation. In both Syria and South Korea, popular resistance prevailed against the forces of dictatorship. The path ahead, however, is filled with uncertainty.

Lest we forget, the past year was filled with countless shocks, including the victory of Donald Trump, the tit-for-tat missile exchanges between Middle East’s two most powerful nations, and the all-out political war between the House of Duterte and the House of Marcos. The old order—along with its underlying assumptions—is perishing, while a new order is yet to crystalize. But as the great Italian thinker Antonio Gramsci counseled: one should combine the “pessimism of the intellect,” namely taking into account hard facts and troubling imponderables with the “optimism of the will,” namely the courage to fight for freedom and a better tomorrow.

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/179014/syria-to-south-korea-an-age-of-uncertainty