New leadership in Democratic Party
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By Jay Kim
A few days ago, the Democratic Party (DP), which is the main opposition party in Korea, elected a new leadership. Unlike the flying water bottles and raised voices of the past, the leadership election was conducted in a civilized manner. One thing worth reporting was that the one who got the most votes among the four leadership council members of the party had just one year of political experience. What’s more, there was not one leadership council member from a Honam district (located in the southwest of the peninsula). This result gives us hope that the practice of provoking regionalism, a factor that has dominated elections for a long time, might be disappearing.
I have high hopes from the fact that Assemblyman Kim Han-gil, who is known to be independent of any of the factions within the party, was elected as the party leader in a decisive fashion. This may be a sign that the DP is changing into a future-oriented party, breaking away from its factional politics of the past, where each faction (like the pro-Roh faction or the non-mainstream faction) only pursued its own interests. Furthermore, I was impressed when Kim said in his acceptance speech that the party would cooperate with the administration and the ruling party on national security issues while fulfilling its role of keeping them in check and balance as the main opposition party. This is certainly a change to the usual image of an opposition party, of often unreasonable opposition and criticism.
Kim said in a press conference after his victory, “It is hard to justify North Korea’s holding the Gaeseong Industrial Complex hostage with any justifiable reason.” It has been a long time since the DP last stood up and criticized the North, and I hope this was a message to pro-North Korea lawmakers that still have influence in the opposition party. I want to see the DP stop being swayed by a tiny number of radical pro-North members and show the necessary leadership to change them into patriots that love South Korea. From now on, I hope the DP, as a pure liberal party, will show us great two-party politics between conservatives and liberals like America’s successful two-party system.
However, I also hope the party will stop trying to unify the scores of small opposition parties, the only purpose of which is to win an election. It does not fit with a major opposition party. In the United States, there are many cases where Republican lawmakers side and vote with their Democratic colleagues. I was one of those Republicans. It is never the case that only conservatives worry about national security. What Kim said was right. There cannot be a distinction between the ruling and opposition parties on the issues of national security or national interests, and during a national crisis.
In the U.S., President Bill Clinton pushed forward the North American Free Trade Agreement even though he was a Democrat. He did this because he believed that, even though a free trade agreement was traditionally a Republican policy, it would advance the national interest.
The change of leadership in the DP gave me a strong impression that the Republic of Korea is really changing into an advanced country, not just in its economy, but also in its politics. It is still fresh in my memory that just a few months ago, a presidential candidate with less than 1 percent of public support boasted at a presidential debate that she was running just to prevent then-candidate Park Geun-hye from winning. Now, changes are being made in candidate qualifications for presidential debates to prevent any presidential candidates with less than 1 percent of support from participating, and also on the way out is a law that gave 2.3 billion won of taxpayers’ money as government aid to a party just because it placed a candidate in the presidential election. It appears everything is falling back to its place.
I believe that, soon in South Korea, people will stop lamenting that the backward politics of their country holds back its economy. I genuinely congratulate the birth of the reformed DP, thinking of Psy’s cheer for South Korea while dancing in front of so many Americans.
Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He serves as chairman of the Kim Chang Joon US-Korea Foundation. For more information, visit Kim’s website at www.jayckim.com.