South Korea

 

South Korea: A Model of Spectacular Growth

A Journey That Became an Administrative Lesson

In March–April 2012, I had an opportunity to visit the Republic of Korea as a participant in the training programme “Climate Change & Disaster Prevention”, organised and funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The programme was held from 29 March to 18 April 2012. Fifteen participants from eight SAARC countries—India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives—were part of the programme.

At that time, I was serving as Commissioner of Relief and Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, Government of Gujarat. Therefore, Korea interested me in two different ways. As an administrator, I wanted to understand its disaster-management and development systems. As a traveller, I wanted to see how ordinary Koreans lived.

The combination was fascinating.

I found that sometimes the most useful lessons of administration are not found in conference rooms or presentations. They are visible in the way people live, work, eat, travel, speak to one another and organise their communities.

Korea became such an experience for me.

First Impressions of Korea

South Korea is a peninsula of about 100,140 sq. km, with nearly 70% of its area covered by mountains. At the time of my visit, its population was around 48 million.

The first impression of a foreign visitor was of an orderly, energetic and highly organised society. Modern cities stood beside mountains and rivers. High-rise buildings, wide roads, efficient public facilities and busy commercial areas reflected the country's rapid economic transformation.

But beneath this modern appearance was a society with its own distinctive food, language, family customs and social habits.

The Korean people appeared simple, disciplined and socially connected. Like many Asian societies, family remained important, but the younger generation was increasingly living a modern and individualistic life.

Husband, Wife and Everyday Life

One amusing observation I made was about the relationship between husbands and wives.

The traditional expectation was that the husband would earn and hand over the money to his wife, while the wife often managed the household finances. In my informal conversations, I noticed that husbands could be quite humble when asking their wives for money!

Two expressions that became part of my small vocabulary were:

“Ton juseyo” — Please give me money.

and

“Sarange juseyo” — Give me love.

I used to imagine a Korean husband approaching his wife with both requests!

Behind the humour was an important social observation. Women played a very strong role in the Korean family and economy. They looked after the family, managed finances, participated in farming and increasingly entered professional employment.

For an Indian visitor, the arrangement was both familiar and different. The family remained important, but the economic independence and participation of women were clearly visible.

A Foreigner's Little Korean Dictionary

Whenever I travel to a country whose language I do not know, I like to pick up a few words. One does not need to become a linguist to communicate with people; sometimes five or six words are enough to create a smile.

In Korea, some expressions became particularly useful to us.

“An nyong ha se yo” — Hello.

“Ol ma ye yo?” — How much?

“Kka kka ju se yo” — Please give me a discount.

“Gam sa ham ni da” — Thank you.

These were simple words, but they created an immediate human connection. A foreigner trying to speak even a few words of the local language was generally received warmly.

I learnt again that administration and travel have something in common: communication begins with respect for the other person's language and culture.

Kimchi: More Than a Dish

No description of Korea is complete without kimchi.

Rice remained the staple food, but a Korean meal was accompanied by several side dishes. The most famous was kimchi—a mixture of vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, radish, green onion and cucumber, prepared with red chilli powder and garlic.

For a foreigner, the first sight of a Korean meal could be slightly confusing. Instead of one large dish in the centre, there were several small dishes placed around the rice. Every meal seemed to have its own little collection of tastes.

Kimchi was particularly striking because of its colour and strong flavour.

Traditionally, the long Korean winter made fresh vegetables difficult to obtain. Families therefore prepared large quantities of kimchi in late November or early December to last through the winter. It was stored in large clay jars, partly buried in the ground to maintain temperature and preserve its flavour.

Modern refrigerators have now replaced much of that traditional arrangement.

I found something beautiful in this practice. What appeared to a visitor merely as food was actually a combination of climate adaptation, household planning, food preservation and community tradition.

As an administrator working in disaster management, I could not help seeing another lesson in it: people living in difficult climatic conditions had developed their own systems of preparedness long before modern disaster-management terminology came into existence.

A Food Culture Very Different from Ours

Koreans eat a wide variety of food. Fish, eels, crabs, octopus, chicken, duck and pork are common. Pork and coffee had become increasingly popular among the younger generation.

For an Indian visitor, some food habits could be surprising. Koreans were comfortable eating things that many Indians might consider unusual.

This reminded me that administrative understanding of a society cannot be separated from its culture. Food habits, family structures, festivals, religion, climate and economic conditions all influence the way people respond to government policies.

A policy that works in one society may need considerable adaptation in another.

Hangul: A Language Designed with Thought

The Korean script, Hangul, was another fascinating aspect of the country.

King Sejong the Great, one of the most outstanding kings in Korean history, developed the Korean written language with the help of scholars. The alphabet has 24 characters—14 consonants and 10 vowels.

What fascinated me was that the letters were designed systematically, with the consonants reflecting the shape of the organs used in pronunciation and the vowels based on three basic elements symbolising the sun, earth and people.

For a foreign visitor, the Korean script initially looked completely unfamiliar. Yet there was an underlying logic to it.

I found this another example of an important principle in administration: complexity can often be reduced when a system is designed thoughtfully from the beginning.

A Nation That Rose from War

Behind this modern society was a painful history.

Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. After liberation, it was almost destroyed in the Korean War of 1950–53 and divided into North Korea and South Korea, following Communist and Capitalist systems respectively.

Russia supported North Korea, while the United States supported South Korea. Even during my visit, the security dimension was visible. The two brother countries continued to spend enormous resources on defence.

Yet South Korea had chosen to concentrate on economic development.

Its transformation from a war-ravaged country to a modern industrial economy was one of the most impressive stories of the twentieth century.

The Korean Work Ethic

South Korea followed Export-Oriented Industrialization, moving from labour-intensive industries such as textiles, garments and toys to capital-intensive industries such as electronics, automobiles, shipbuilding, oil refineries and civil works, and then towards high-value-added industries.

The workforce itself underwent a dramatic transformation. In 1963, agriculture, forestry and fisheries employed 63% of the labour force. By 2010, the figure had fallen to 6.6%, while the tertiary sector had risen substantially.

The story of Samsung particularly impressed me. A small company making black-and-white televisions in 1969 had become a global technology giant.

Another story that fascinated me was that of a poor young man who came to the city after selling a cow, worked in a rice shop, carried bags on his shoulders and travelled by bicycle, eventually building a giant industrial group, PASCO, in construction.

These stories reflected something beyond economics.

They reflected aspiration.

A society becomes prosperous when its people begin believing that tomorrow can be better than today—and then work collectively to make it so.

Korea in the Morning

One of my pleasures during the visit was simply observing ordinary life.

People were constantly moving—going to work, travelling by public transport, shopping, eating together and returning home. Young people were particularly energetic. They appeared focused on education, careers, income and the possibilities offered by modern life.

The streets had a rhythm of their own.

There were offices, shops, restaurants, markets and cafés. Technology was visible everywhere. Traditional food existed comfortably alongside modern consumer culture.

Coffee culture was becoming popular. Western-style cafés had become part of urban life. At the same time, traditional Korean food and family customs remained strong.

This coexistence of old and new was perhaps one of the most interesting features of Korea.

A Society Moving Towards No Religion

Among all my observations, one subject stayed with me long after the journey: religion.

My training report recorded that about 47% of Koreans identified themselves as having no religion, while the remainder included Buddhists, Protestants, Catholics and followers of other religions.

I began thinking about the younger generation.

In the Western world too, churches appeared to be visited more frequently by elders and children, while many young people seemed more occupied with education, careers, earning and enjoying life.

I wanted to understand this change.

So I asked a Korean young man:

“Why do you prefer the status of no religion instead of following the religion of your family?”

His answer stayed with me.

He said, in substance:

“I was not born with a religion. I followed the faith of my parents. Now I am young and I have to earn for myself and for my future family. I am yet to find a girl of my choice and marry her. Progress and growth in my life are more important to me than religion.

“Religion teaches us what to do and what not to do, and mostly talks about our condition after death. It has become more customary in nature—how to perform marriage, death ceremonies and rituals. Sometimes religion becomes an obstruction to growth because of its restrictions.

“For me, the present life is more important than life after death. I should grow, my friends should grow and all should grow. My country should grow. We should work hard, produce, improve our income and increase the GDP of the country and live a better quality of life.

“I may follow or not follow the customs of religion in my rituals, but in day-to-day life my participation in the economic activities of the nation is more important. I shall earn, buy a house and other amenities of life, spend money on my needs, pay taxes to the government to build infrastructure, and help people in need if I have excess money.

“Development of my physical life is my first priority.”

I do not know whether this young man represented all Korean youth. Certainly, he did not. But his answer made me think deeply.

Religion, Development and Human Life

I began to wonder where the orthodox world was going.

In the name of religion, some people continue to accept inequality among human beings by birth and create conflicts in society. Some are brainwashed into becoming terrorists in the hope of attaining Jannat after death. Religion, which should unite people, sometimes becomes a dividing force.

Yet who does not want to become a good human being?

Who does not want peace and happiness?

Who does not want the bliss of God?

Almost everyone wants these things.

But souls live in bodies. Bodies need food, shelter, education, healthcare, employment and security.

Therefore, economic activity matters.

The physical and mental strength of youth should be used for individual development and, through that, for the development of the community and the country.

At the same time, we should not lose the good practices that have traditionally been taught through religion—Yoga, Asanas, meditation, discipline, compassion and self-control.

Perhaps the question is not simply religion or no religion.

The real question is:

What makes a better human being and a better society?

Looking Beyond the Finger

Thought leaders such as Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir, Jesus, Muhammad and Gandhi conveyed ideas of common good to humanity.

But many of us, instead of looking at the moon towards which they pointed, keep looking at the finger—and then begin fighting over the size and identity of the finger.

This seemed particularly meaningful to me in a country where people from different religious backgrounds were living together, while a large section of the younger generation was choosing no formal religion.

The lesson for me was not to reject religion, but to look beyond labels and ask what values can contribute to human welfare.

The Administrator in Me Looks at Disaster

While these social observations enriched my travel experience, the administrator in me kept returning to the purpose of the visit.

The training covered Korea's climate-change adaptation, disaster-management institutions, flood and typhoon management, landslides, coastal disasters, tsunami warning systems, local emergency management and collaborative emergency-management systems.

The field visits took us to a water-retention basin, Gosan Meteorological Observatory, the National Typhoon Centre and a windmill power plant in Jeju, and to the Korea Meteorological Agency, Han River Flood Control Office and Samsung Electronics in Seoul.

These visits made the training much more real.

A PowerPoint presentation can explain a flood-control system. Standing before the actual infrastructure gives the administrator a different understanding.

A lecture can explain early warning. Seeing the monitoring systems shows how information travels from nature to technology and from technology to the decision-maker.

A policy document can speak about coordination. Observing institutions working together shows what coordination actually means.

The Emergency Operation Centre

Korea had Emergency Operation Centres at major cities and provincial headquarters. They dealt routinely with medical, fire and police emergencies and coordinated disaster-management operations during calamities.

I found this particularly relevant to Gujarat.

A disaster does not arrive department by department.

A flood may simultaneously require the Revenue Department, Irrigation Department, Police, Fire Services, Health Department, Electricity authorities, Transport Department and local government to act.

Therefore, the challenge is not merely to have competent departments. The challenge is to make them work as one system when the situation demands it.

This became one of my strongest administrative takeaways from Korea.

Information Is Power During a Disaster

Korea had developed sophisticated information systems for disaster monitoring and response—automatic rainfall warnings, CCTV integration, disaster information sharing, situation analysis, mobile warning systems and decision-support systems.

I returned with a simple thought:

The administrator who receives reliable information ten minutes earlier may save many lives.

For a disaster manager, information is not merely data. It is a resource that can become life-saving action.

This was why I recommended that Korea's ICT-based disaster-management systems be studied further and adapted to Indian and Gujarat conditions.

Floods: Prevent Them Before They Become Disasters

Korea's experience with floods was especially relevant to me.

Its four major rivers—the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Youngsan—faced flood risks, while urbanisation and heavy rainfall created additional vulnerabilities. Korea had invested in flood monitoring, reservoirs and river-management infrastructure.

I immediately thought of Gujarat's Tapi, Narmada, Mahi and Sabarmati.

My training report suggested that Gujarat could take a lead in modernising flood-control cells for these rivers and improve protection for Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara and Ahmedabad.

This was more than an engineering lesson.

It was a lesson in administrative timing.

The best disaster manager is not the person who reaches the flood site fastest. It is the person who makes the flood less dangerous before it happens.

Green Growth

Korea also made me think differently about development.

Its Green Growth policy attempted to minimise natural-resource use and environmental pollution while continuing economic growth and using environmental challenges as an engine for new growth.

The idea was attractive because development and environmental protection were not treated as permanent enemies.

Clean energy, green technology, energy efficiency and environmental protection could themselves become sources of investment, innovation and employment.

My training report therefore recommended Green Growth as a possible pathway for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions while creating new economic opportunities.

This became particularly relevant to me because the training itself was on climate change and disaster prevention. Climate change was no longer an issue for environmental departments alone. It was becoming a challenge for every administrator responsible for infrastructure, agriculture, cities, water, health and livelihoods.

From Aid Recipient to Donor

Perhaps the most inspiring part of Korea's story was its economic transformation.

Its GNI per capita had risen from $63 in 1953 to $29,010 in 2010. It had moved from receiving aid to becoming a donor country. KOICA was established in 1991, and Korea joined OECD/DAC in 2010.

For an Indian civil servant, this was an important lesson.

Development is not merely about receiving assistance.

The ultimate goal should be to develop the capacity to stand on one's own feet and eventually help others.

What I Brought Back from Korea

When I returned, I realised that I had brought back three different kinds of lessons.

The traveller in me remembered kimchi, unfamiliar foods, Korean words, mountains, modern cities, cafés, family life and the humour of husbands asking their wives for money.

The citizen in me thought about the young Korean who valued economic independence, hard work and quality of life more than religious identity.

And the administrator in me returned with ideas about Emergency Operation Centres, early warning, flood monitoring, GIS, inter-departmental coordination, disaster preparedness, Green Growth and time-bound action plans supported by budgets.

Perhaps this is what makes travel valuable.

We do not merely see another country.

We see our own country differently after seeing another.

The Final Lesson

Korea taught me that spectacular development does not happen through one miracle.

It comes from the cumulative effect of hard work, education, technology, infrastructure, disciplined institutions, entrepreneurship, policy continuity and people's aspirations.

Similarly, effective disaster management does not depend on one heroic administrator. It depends on systems that can predict, warn, coordinate, respond and recover.

And a healthy society does not necessarily depend upon everyone following the same religion. It depends upon people respecting one another and sharing common values of humanity, peace and prosperity.

Scientists, technologists, doctors and agricultural scientists have made our lives more comfortable and liveable. Our life expectancy, education, income and material comforts have increased enormously.

But development also brings responsibility.

Climate change and over-exploitation of natural resources can become challenges for the next generation. Therefore, development must be combined with sustainability.

And prosperity must be combined with humanity.

Combining the fruits of economic development with a life of good virtues can make the world a heaven. Otherwise, the endless fight of “I”, the ego, can destroy harmony and make the earth a hell.

My Korean journey therefore left me with a thought that has remained with me:

Religion or no religion, humanity and prosperity should be the torch of our life.

In Retrospect

Looking back, the most valuable thing I brought home from Korea was not a particular technology, policy or administrative model.

It was a way of looking at society.

I learnt to observe a country simultaneously through the eyes of a traveller, a citizen and an administrator.

The traveller noticed the kimchi.

The citizen noticed the aspirations of young Koreans.

The administrator noticed the Emergency Operation Centre.

And all three noticed the same thing:

A society progresses when its people, institutions and aspirations move in the same direction.

That, for me, was the real lesson of South Korea.