Cramming for May election

By Kim Ji-soo

• Published Apr 12, 2017 5:32 PM KST
• Updated Apr 12, 2017 5:32 PM KST

After having witnessed a political drama unfold on the streets of Seoul in the form of millions of Koreans protesting to eventually oust a sitting president over alleged influence-peddling, Koreans now face a test. It is a test looming closely with one question and five answers: Who should be next Korean president?

At the start of the year, there were seemingly so many candidates including the once wildly popular former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Finally, the candidate landscape is down to five as we well know. They are Moon Jae-in, a human rights lawyer and former presidential secretary during the Roh Moo-hyun administration and a candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK); Ahn Cheol-soo, a business tycoon-turned-politician, a candidate for the People’s Party; Yoo Seong-min, a former ruling party lawmaker, of the Bareun Party; Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party; Sim Sang-jung, the candidate for Justice Party. The independent candidate Kim Chong-in on Wednesday dropped out of the race. And if there is anything close to a guide to which candidate to pick, it is the stream of polls media outlets and pollsters are putting forth on a daily basis. On Monday, several survey results came out putting Moon and Ahn in a closely heated race. The poll conducted by Kantar Public for the Chosun Ilbo showed Ahn with support of 34. 4 percent and Moon with 32. 2 percent in a multiple competition. In a KBS-Yonhap survey conducted by Korea Research in a five-way race, Ahn was slightly ahead at 36.8 percent to Moon’s 32.7 percent. An MBC and Hankyung Newspaper’s survey conducted by Research and Research showed Moon (35.2

percent)

over Ahn (34.5 percent) in a five-way race. The Hankyoreh-Hankyoreh Economy and Society Research Institute’s poll showed both Moon and Ahn garnering the same figure ― 37.7 percent.

So many poll results are emerging, demonstrating the confusion voters and political analysts are feeling before the election that is now taking place 60 days after the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. Among the five, however, Moon and Ahn are heading down to the wire on May 9. Moon has been casting his campaign as aimed at eliminating the “accumulated evils” of Korea; the collusive ties between the government and businesses as allegedly revealed in the influence-peddling scandal. Ahn has taken the view that he is out to demolish factionalism and respond to the future the Korean economy faces with regard to the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Negative attacks are peppering the campaigns, but finally, pledges are emerging on such issues as job creation, on the planned deployment of THAAD in Korea, and education.

The jobs issue surely reigns in Korean voters’ minds. Even the current rising anxiety regarding North Korea needs to be assuaged for the incoming leader to address the job issue. Statistics Korea recently announced that unemployment in Korea stood at 5 percent in February. That is a figure higher than the American unemployment rate that marked 4.7 percent. Moon has said the government will play a role in job creation. More specifically, he has said that he will create more public-sector jobs. Ahn favors job creations led by the private sector. But he too leans on the public budget with pledges such as raising the level of pay at small- and medium-sized companies to at least 80 percent of the level of pay at large conglomerates. To do that, Ahn has envisaged input from the public budget. On THAAD, both Moon and Ahn are exercising flexibility following heightened tension on the Korean Peninsula after the North’s test-firing of a new ballistic missile with a maximum range of 800 kilometers. In all, it is a positive development to see the candidates striving to compete by pledges.

The reality however, as of now, is that both Moon and Ahn are considered to have benefitted from their potential rivals’ demise. For Moon, the mind-shattering incapability of former President Park Geun-hye and for Ahn, the failure of the young and dynamic South Chungcheong Province Governor An Hee-jung to garner the DPK’s candidacy. With such tepid reasons behind their rise and the short time to gauge the real values of the candidates, voters may well pick someone more familiar rather than look for full change. More likely, voters will watch closely how the new president will govern; one reason for this is there is already talk and rumors that impeachment may become common. Whoever may emerge as a leader should be humble and remember this aspect of voters as they carry out their job.

janee@ktimes.com