Progressives should make clear their identity and restart
It's hard to be a progressive politician in South Korea. You may be free to have progressive thoughts, but turning them into actions is another story. Nearly seven decades of confrontation with Stalinist North Korea is one reason, and the generally conservative atmosphere of society, especially within the establishment, is another.
Nothing showed this better than the difficulties the two liberal, or relatively progressive, presidents ― Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun ― experienced in pushing their policies. "One of my greatest wishes is to receive a fair evaluation by conservative newspapers," Kim once said.
A still harder moment comes when progressive parties lose their identity, making it hard for voters to differentiate them from conservatives. That's happening now within the New Politics Alliance for Democracy.
The NPAD is in crisis of splitting into two groups under the pressure of the failed negotiations over the legislation of a special law to investigate the tragic sinking of the ferry Sewol in April. It is sandwiched between the victims' families, who call for giving the right to investigate and indict responsible officials to a proposed fact-finding committee, and the ruling conservative party that will never allow it.
It's rather ironic that the main opposition party ― not President Park Geun-hye or her Saenuri Party ― has emerged as the biggest political victim of the worst peacetime disaster in decades, which left 294 killed and 10 still missing.
On the surface, the ongoing crisis seems attributable to floor leader and interim chairwoman, Park Young-sun, who bungled the special law negotiations and inadvertently picked a former Saenuri advisor as a co-chair of NPAD's emergency committee. Park should step down taking responsibility for her misjudgment and insufficient communication with party cadres.
A more objective and neutral voter, however, would know who should take greater responsibility for the ongoing political stalemate resulting from the stalled legislation _ President Park and the ruling party who broke their promises made five months ago. It's mainly the lack of unity and rampant factionalism within the NPAD ― plus the conservative media's exaggeration of the ''Sewol fatigue" ― that made the largest opposition party fail to pressure the ruling camp harder. And behind the factionalism is the party's failure to make clear its political identity.
At a time when President Park and the conservative party preempt the progressive agenda but not practice them in earnest, the NPAD's role is to point out the gap between words and actions, and present more effective and detailed steps to realize its platform; not try to move toward the right.
The progressives must remember the economic policy failures of the two former liberal presidents ― summed up as turning the left blinker on but making a right turn ― were the reason for the political power change seven years ago.
If the progressives and centrists within the NPAD fail to reunite as one under a platform that's clearly distinguishable from conservatives, they should brace for the ruling conservatives' long-term seizure of power, like Japan's Liberal Democratic Party.
It's hard to be a progressive politician in South Korea. You may be free to have progressive thoughts, but turning them into actions is another story. Nearly seven decades of confrontation with Stalinist North Korea is one reason, and the generally conservative atmosphere of society, especially within the establishment, is another.
Nothing showed this better than the difficulties the two liberal, or relatively progressive, presidents ― Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun ― experienced in pushing their policies. "One of my greatest wishes is to receive a fair evaluation by conservative newspapers," Kim once said.
A still harder moment comes when progressive parties lose their identity, making it hard for voters to differentiate them from conservatives. That's happening now within the New Politics Alliance for Democracy.
The NPAD is in crisis of splitting into two groups under the pressure of the failed negotiations over the legislation of a special law to investigate the tragic sinking of the ferry Sewol in April. It is sandwiched between the victims' families, who call for giving the right to investigate and indict responsible officials to a proposed fact-finding committee, and the ruling conservative party that will never allow it.
It's rather ironic that the main opposition party ― not President Park Geun-hye or her Saenuri Party ― has emerged as the biggest political victim of the worst peacetime disaster in decades, which left 294 killed and 10 still missing.
On the surface, the ongoing crisis seems attributable to floor leader and interim chairwoman, Park Young-sun, who bungled the special law negotiations and inadvertently picked a former Saenuri advisor as a co-chair of NPAD's emergency committee. Park should step down taking responsibility for her misjudgment and insufficient communication with party cadres.
A more objective and neutral voter, however, would know who should take greater responsibility for the ongoing political stalemate resulting from the stalled legislation _ President Park and the ruling party who broke their promises made five months ago. It's mainly the lack of unity and rampant factionalism within the NPAD ― plus the conservative media's exaggeration of the ''Sewol fatigue" ― that made the largest opposition party fail to pressure the ruling camp harder. And behind the factionalism is the party's failure to make clear its political identity.
At a time when President Park and the conservative party preempt the progressive agenda but not practice them in earnest, the NPAD's role is to point out the gap between words and actions, and present more effective and detailed steps to realize its platform; not try to move toward the right.
The progressives must remember the economic policy failures of the two former liberal presidents ― summed up as turning the left blinker on but making a right turn ― were the reason for the political power change seven years ago.
If the progressives and centrists within the NPAD fail to reunite as one under a platform that's clearly distinguishable from conservatives, they should brace for the ruling conservatives' long-term seizure of power, like Japan's Liberal Democratic Party.
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