2016 was a rough year for South Koreans, following the scandal involving South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye. Last month, President Park was impeached by the National Assembly on accounts of constitutional and legal violations. The prime person of interest in these allegations is Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of Ms. Park’s mentor, Choi Tae-min, a religious leader of a cult called the Church of Eternal Life. As if the mere mentorship from a man who calls himself the future coming of the Buddha wasn’t enough, the president has been accused of sending classified documents to Choi, as well as using her political influence to exhorting millions of dollars from major business conglomerates, allegedly including Samsung as well. In October of last year, investigators found dozens of classified documents in Choi’s unsecured, personal tablet PC. Choi allegedly used this political connection as a means to force Ewha Womans University, the world’s largest women’s educational institution, to give preferential treatment to her daughter. While formal court hearings continue, to most Koreans, the accusations are as good as true; the existing proof is quite conclusive, and more and more evidence is piling up.

I feel ashamed and embarrassed that South Korea elected a hereditary politician backed up by her father’s supporters, especially since the senior Park was a tyrannical dictator: when South Koreans demanded more democracy in the 1970s, the senior President Park enacted military law, torturing and killing their leaders. But perhaps we may view this incident in a positive light; the mere fact that millions of Koreans have been able to gather in the streets in peaceful protest against their corrupt leader is a sign of democracy at its finest.