Kim Ji-soo joined The Korea Times in 2006, and worked on such desks as culture and politics and is currently a member of the Editorial Board. Previous workplaces include The Korea Herald and the Korea JoongAng Daily.
New faces and the race at LKP
By Kim Ji-soo
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By Kim Ji-soo
A race, or a fight will always draw a crowd, as the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) will surely feel as it prepares for its upcoming convention. Beleaguered from the March 2017 impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye for corruption, the party will hold a convention on Feb. 27 to pick a new leader.
Because the Moon Jae-in administration is heading into its second half, the race for the LKP leadership is a barometer to gauge the contenders' feasibility for the 2022 presidential election. In the competition, former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is emerging strong.
At 61, the former prosecutor/justice minister/prime minister has a solid record as a bureaucrat. As a prosecutor he built a steady portfolio in public security cases. Calm, poised, soft-spoken and a devout Christian, Hwang's demeanor suggests he may well be the gentlemanly elder that the conservative camp urgently needs.
This is despite the fact that Hwang served as Park's last prime minister, and eventually as acting president for several months before Park's ouster from the presidential office. Last Tuesday, Hwang formally announced his bid for the party leadership, pledging to push for a “2020 project” to transform the economy. But he also vowed to scrap the Moon Jae-in administration's policies such as income-led growth and reducing reliance on nuclear energy. Hwang dissenters are debating just how qualified the new party entrant is to join the LKP. But recent polls put him atop the contenders for 2022.
The Korean political sphere and voters have long looked toward former prime ministers when days near to pick the next president. Moon Jae-in has more than two years left in his presidency, but Koreans have always ruminated about future leaders when the incumbent administration enters its third year.
In that vein, several former prime ministers have dallied with the notion of running for president, although with varying degrees of success. Former Prime Minister Goh Kun was a strong possibility. He served twice as prime minister, first in 1997 under President Kim Young-sam, and then under President Roh Moo-hyun. But several months after deciding on his bid for the presidency, he opted out saying he would retire in 2007.
Former Prime Minister Lee Soo-sung, also under former President Kim, was much talked about.
And in the ruling camp, the leading contender for the next presidential race is sitting Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon. There is no way for us to predict where all these former and current prime ministers will be in the next three years. But it's easier to see that despite previous attempts, former prime ministers have not yet succeeded in transitioning to the presidential office.
Prime ministers usually tend to be from the top elite. The common tenet of bureaucracy and politics is to serve. However, as we well know, in reality bureaucrats tend be executors while politicians must hustle so to speak within and out the party and toward voters.
Hwang has yet to show that he can hustle his political content. He has issued some strong words of rebuttal toward the Moon administration, but it is always easier to oppose than to propose anew. It remains to be seen how he will build up his political platform but the hope is that he bears in mind that he caters to a constituency facing an uncertain economy, future and geopolitics.
Hwang has already strongly criticized the Moon administration, indirectly referring to how “the philosophy of the student movement, which belongs in the graveyards, is dominant in Korean governance,” and the headlong push for peace on the Korean Peninsula when dictatorship and human rights issues hover over North Korea. Stridency is not something Korea should aim for amid all the current chaos and promise.