Politics in the past week has been more enthralling and pacy than a thriller film.  South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who vowed to make his country a ‘global pivotal state’, faced impeachment after a botched attempt to impose martial law that was overturned within hours. But the impeachment vote failed after the ruling party boycotted it.

This is not the first time Yoon has been under a cloud. His troubles even include South Korean prosecutors questioning first lady Kim Keon Hee over a designer bag she was suspected of accepting as a gift. As the move for dictatorship plunged the nation into a state of political turmoil, thousands of people took to the streets, trying to oppose imposition of martial law and on Saturday too while the impeachment motion was under process. 

On Saturday, the public was jumping and dancing to hit Korean songs outside parliament, and it seemed the entire nation was out on the roads.  The defeat of the impeachment motion is expected to intensify public protests and deepen political chaos in South Korea, as a survey suggests most South Koreans support the impeachment.

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This isn’t the first time when people have protested or taken power in their hands. This year, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave the country after student-led protests against a quota system for government jobs turned into a popular call for her removal. Hundreds of people were killed in the violence that erupted in Bangladesh following the fall of the Hasina government, taking the death toll to more than 1,000 since the protests first started in mid-July. Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the main opposition party who lives in exile in the United Kingdom, said on X that “Hasina’s resignation proves the power of the people”.

In 2023, an unprecedented people’s protest forced powerful president Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka to resign. Inflation in Sri Lanka skyrocketed as foreign reserves emptied and the country ran short of fuel, food and medicine in 2022, and residents experienced up to 13-hour power cuts – the worst economic crisis the country faced since independence. Some blame disastrous economic policies while others blame the Rajapaksa family for corruption and siphoning public money. The protesters stormed the presidential palace, forcing Rajapaksa out of power when Rajapaksa had to flee the country.

Thousands of people took to the streets in multiple cities across Indonesia to protest against attempted revisions to the country’s election law this year. Indonesia’s parliament postponed ratifying changes to the election rules this year as protesters attempted to tear down the gates of the legislature in the capital, Jakarta.