Embracing winds of change

Water that fails to flow is bound to become stagnant. This old Korean saying seems to have never been more relevant than at present, as far as the country’s politics is concerned.

Korean politics, just like stagnant water, has already become rotten and corrupt. Most politicians and political parties have been trying hard to maintain the status quo and protect their own vested interests, mainly by refusing to embrace any change whatsoever.

That’s probably why the late Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kunhee once described Korean politics as “fourth-rate,” falling behind the country’s administrative power (third-rate) and its corporate competitiveness (second-rate).

Pundits have often cited the evaluation Lee made in 1995 to lament the country’s political backwardness, despite its much-touted transition to a democracy from a dictatorship. It is shameful that Korean politicians are still mired in dog-eat-dog partisan strife, ideological divisions, regional antagonism and corruption.

Politicians of both the ruling and opposition parties should realize that they can no longer survive unless they change. If they keep putting their self-interest before the public and national interests, they will not change the dismal political scene.

However, we don’t have to be completely pessimistic. The winds of change have now begun to blow, originating from the conservative main opposition People Power Party (PPP).

On June 11, the PPP elected Lee Jun-seok, a 36-year-old politician with no experience as a lawmaker, as its chairman. Lee’s meteoric rise to leadership carries significance as it signals a generational change in his own party as well as in the broader political establishment.

Lee has become the youngest-ever leader of a mainstream party in Korea’s modern history. His election reflected growing calls from the people for political change and innovation. It came after the PPP won a landslide victory in the April 7 mayoral by-elections in Seoul and Busan.

The election results dealt a severe blow to the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). Voters, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, have increasingly turned their back on the DPK and shifted their support to the PPP, not because the opposition performed well, but because the governing party is doing so poorly.

Those developments are a wake-up call to the liberal DPK, whose mainstream members are former pro-democracy activists, better known as the “586” group who are now in their 50s, attended college in the 1980s and were born in the 1960s.

The DPK seems to have lost the momentum for change, although people elected its candidate, Moon Jae-in, as president of the country in May 2017, following the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye for corruption and abuse of power. Moon took advantage of the massive candlelit rallies against Park to bolster his image and win the poll.

Voters also gave a supermajority to the DPK in the 2020 general election, after the party scored a sweeping victory in the 2018 local election. They had hoped that the DPK would restore democracy and constitutional order, which were severely damaged by the previous Park government.

But the DPK and the Moon government have failed to meet the people’s aspirations for drastic political change and reform. President Moon repeatedly promised to create a fair and just society with equal opportunities. But his promise turned out to be nothing but lip service.

More seriously, Moon has undermined the values of fairness and justice by going all-out to protect his confidants from charges of bribery, influence peddling and election fraud. A case in point is the corruption and admissions scandal involving former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, one of his close aides.

Cho and his wife were indicted on various charges, including admissions fraud aimed at helping their daughter get into medical school. But, DPK lawmakers and government officials tried to prevent the prosecution from investigating the case. They also waged a fight against then Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, now one of most favored presidential aspirants, in an effort to save Cho.

In a nutshell, the ruling elite, consisting largely of members of the 586 generation, have become arrogant, self-righteous and hypocritical. Leftist-leaning liberal parties such as the DPK should maintain the moral high ground if they want to secure any legitimacy to remain in power. However, the DPK has done the opposite.

Against this backdrop, the conservative PPP, under the new leadership of its young Chairman Lee, is taking the lead in attempting to bring about change to established politics.

Lee faces a tough task of rebuilding the dilapidated party, expanding its support base and integrating the opposition bloc to field a unified candidate in the upcoming presidential election, set for March 2022. Some skeptics are calling into question his leadership due to his lack of a political career and organizational power.

Now, he and his party should do their best to find a new identity for the PPP and present a new vision for the future. Most of all, they must go all-out to restore fairness and justice. Only then can they clean up the mess disgraced former President Park left behind her and open a new era of politics for the country.