Fostering multiculturaLEEsm

MANILA, Philippines - Two years after winning a historic election, Jasmine Lee still bears the brunt of being the first Filipino and naturalized-Korean member of South Korea’s National Assembly.

While she feels more accepted now than in her earlier years as proportional representative in congress, Lee said some people, most of them conservatives, were still having a hard time accepting her victory.

“[I feel] a lot better [now] than the first few months when people were still trying to digest the idea that you have a non-Korean member of the assembly. That’s actually one of the biggest shocks because a lot of people were thinking it’s still too early to have an immigrant member of the assembly,” Lee told STARweek in an interview facilitated by the Korea Press Foundation and Kwanhun Club 2014 Fellowship Program.

In the recently held Asian games, for example, Lee was criticized for carrying the Korean flag together with other well-known Koreans during the opening ceremony in Incheon.

“I was bombarded with negative comments because the title was eight people who made Korea proud. [Some people thought:] what did Jasmine Lee do to make Korea proud? That was the question,” she said.

“Now, what they didn’t see was the Korean slogan of the Incheon games and the English slogan are different. The English slogan is: Diversity Shines Here. While the Korean slogan will translate into English as: The Breath of Peace and Asia’s Future,” she added.

When the committee handling the Asian Games offered her the role, Lee accepted it, thinking it was apt for her to do so. Those unaware of the two slogans, however, were puzzled. Comments centered on what Lee has done to actually make Korea proud – since her being a member of the assembly simply “did not make sense.”

“To represent the slogan ‘Diversity Shines Here,’ I have to be there. Korea is trying to [build] an image as a global country, as the leader of globalism in Asia. That’s the reason why I’m holding the flag,” she said.

Heaviest weight

Like her critics, Lee was unaware of the two slogans. It was only after being criticized on the Internet that she realized it.

“It was also a good thing for me because I received emails from people saying they really regret the fact that there were so many negative comments. They sent me emails saying ‘I support you, and I know what you’re doing,’” Lee said.

These emails came from people, whom Lee described as “minorities.” They are those who benefitted from her bills that ranged from supporting multicultural families, to resolving domestic violence, and pushing for the rights of women used as sex slaves during the war.

It’s through them that Lee gets the strength to leave an impressive imprint that could enable “more Jasmine Lees” to run for – and win – a seat in the National Assembly in the future.

“I wanted to do good so we can have a second, third, or fourth Jasmine Lee. It’s a big weight on my shoulder because I know [that] if I do anything that would create a negative impact, it will take a long, long time for immigrants to be in this position again. That’s the biggest weight I’m carrying,” she said.

The fight was not to have more rights because these were already in place. What she was gunning for was the respect and the acceptance of multicultural families in Korea’s “homogenous society.”

“If you talk about policies, Korea has one of the best multicultural policies around the world. The problem is, sometimes, you cannot implement the projects because of the negative impressions and ideas you receive from the people living in that district or community,” she said.

Big shock

Lee migrated to Korea in 1995 after marrying a Korean seaman she met in the Philippines. She became an actress before joining the conservative party now led by incumbent president Park Geun-hye. According to her, the public was more accepting of multicultural families then.

“Everyone was just so amazed by the fact that you’re a foreigner and you’re in Korea. They were just curious. We have a word called tsong. It doesn’t even translate to any particular word in English. It’s like affection or it’s like love for another. You could see that. It was there back in 1995 when I first came here,” she said.

Multiculturalism was a new concept promoted by local governments back then in order to address Korea’s aging society. Officials provided financial support for men in the provinces so they could marry foreign women, who were mostly from Southeast Asia, Japan and China.

But the project had its side effects and the media picked them up. “In the news, you won’t really see a picture of a happy multicultural family. What you see in the media are domestic violence, high divorce rates, children not being able to cope with school and the alcoholic husband. [They would only show] the problems it brought to the society and this changed the image of immigrants,” she said.

But Lee could not blame them. Out of 100 divorces in Korea, 11 of them were multicultural marriages. Lee said, some foreign women would even take advantage of Korean men by marrying them for the sake of changing their citizenship to escape poverty in their countries.

Worse, some women would not even wait for a proper divorce. They would just “escape” from their husbands after arriving in Korea.

All these led to the negative perception of multiculturalism, up to the point, that the words multicultural family had “discriminatory” connotation.

It was because of this that Lee founded a group called Waterdrop Society, an organization that aimed to “better the perception of multicultural families” in Korea.

She wanted the public to see that immigrants have a voice, too, and that they can also provide – and not just receive – help from the government.

Lee became known and respected for this advocacy, and was often tapped as adviser for projects geared toward improving the lives of these people.

All this came before her political career started rolling in the 2012 elections. When people adversely reacted to her new career path, Lee was “shocked.”

“It was a big shock for me during the beginning of my term kasi I was in the movie industry. When people saw me back then, they would say, oh Jasmine-nida. Then, they would take pictures of me. They would take pictures with me. They would say ‘I just wanna hold your hand.’ Artista. You know that. But when I switched to politics, they were like: ‘What are you doing here? You’re not working. Why are you not in the Assembly?’

“It was very difficult. From being applauded then biglang tinatapakan ka ng tao... But as I’ve said, I received a lot of love in my 20 years in Korea for me to turn my back [just because of the] few who were trying to put me down,” she said.

It also took a while before some lawmakers and government officials took her seriously. They sometimes ignored her and doubted her ability to speak Korean fluently. And though she could, an interpreter was even sent to assist her in one event.

“There was a lot of doubt... maybe I’m just a face, a face of the party, just being a puppet of the party, you know. Just to garner the votes of the immigrant population. But now it’s different. Now people saw what I have done, what I can do in the future, so I think it’s a lot different,” she said.

Among the bills she authored was that of requiring a “mandatory understanding of multiculturalism education in school, government employees and for the teachers.”

“My firm belief is that education will actually change the perception and understanding about multiculturalism,” she said, adding this should not be limited to the students.

“Teachers [should be taught as well] because if the teachers have a negative perception, or if they don’t have a proper understanding of multiculturalism, they will also teach the same thing to the children. Then, the government employees [too] because they were tasked to enact all the projects done by the lawmakers with regards to multiculturalism,” she said.

The bill was passed but water downed, meaning it would depend on the ministries and school principals on how and when they would implement it. Despite this, Lee said she was thankful because a lot of schools have adopted the measure.

Pictures or illustrations of the word “foreigners” in school textbooks are now being changed from only the blonde-and-blue-eyed Caucasian to other Asian races. Awards were also given out to schools with impressive multicultural curriculums. Concerned ministries, meanwhile, are active in disseminating this information to other schools, in hopes that they would adopt it too.

Lee’s ultimate goal is to have one “control tower” for immigrants that would handle all the immigration and multicultural issues in Korea.

As of present, there are three separate committees under the office of the prime minister that are handling immigrant-related affairs. The 11 ministries (or departments) also have their own multicultural policies, which they implement independent form each other.

If she can’t have her control tower in the near future, Lee said she wants all the committees under the prime minister’s office merged into one.

“Now they’re actually trying to do that. They’re actually trying to interconnect [them],” she said.

Lee has two more years before her term ends. She is not sure if the party would tap her for reelection. The only thing she’s sure of is she’d like to maximize her stay by working hard in order to leave a good impression for immigrants.

“So the immigrants will have another chance to become a member of the National Assembly. Even if that immigrant is not me,” she said.