Stop playing 'blame game'

By Kang Seung-woo

Less than a year since attaining power, President Yoon Suk Yeol and his People Power Party (PPP) are seeing a great decline in their approval ratings ― an unusual phenomenon for a new ruling bloc, which traditionally should be enjoying a so-called honeymoon period.

According to the latest poll by Gallup Korea, Friday, Yoon's approval rating fell to a four-month low of 30 percent, with his disapproval rating reaching 60 percent. Another survey by Realmeter on positive sentiment toward political parties, released on Monday, saw the ruling party trailing the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) by 10 percentage points ― 47.1 percent to 37.1 percent.

However, with no signs of a clear-cut exit plan to turn things around, the ruling party seems to have adopted a new yet unexpected ploy of blaming its predecessor ― a pattern that they were strongly critical of during the tenure of former President Moon Jae-in, who often blamed his predecessor, President Park Geun-hye, for being the source of all the problems.

The “blame game” strategy comes as Yoon urged the PPP last August to stop making excuses that the current economic situation is inherited from the previous administration. He believes the excuse is no longer working for the people. Thus the PPP's scheme may indicate just how bad the situation is for the party.

Despite the long-awaited and fence-mending Korea-Japan summit on March 16, the Japanese government's authorization of textbooks that distort its wartime atrocities, March 28, drew a denunciation by the DPK regarding Yoon's meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as “shameful diplomacy.”

In response, PPP spokesperson Rep. Kim Mi-ae said the school textbook case was part of the Japanese government's series of acts of distorting history over the years, dating back to the tenure of the Moon administration, which wrecked Korea-Japan ties. She also accused the Moon administration of doing nothing to stop Japan's historical distortions.

Recently, the Yoon administration took heavy flak for a proposed revision to the legal workweek from 52 hours to 69 hours.

While the government and the ruling party were in hot water over the proposal, Rep. Lim Lee-ja of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee brought up the Moon administration, claiming that the Moon government introduced a uniform 52-hour work week system, which created social side effects and that the Yoon administration's working hour reform plan is the solution to improve it.

Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon, Yoon's close aide, seems to have jumped on the bandwagon of the PPP's blame game in defense of his role in the appointment of Chung Sun-sin, a former police investigation chief who resigned in February, just a day ahead of assuming his post, amid a bullying controversy involving his son at school.

Under the Yoon administration, the presidential office transferred its vetting system to the justice ministry, saying it is not the job of the presidential office to perform background checks on people.

In the wake of the failed screening system, the justice minister said he was sorry for not preventing the victim from suffering due to the failure in the vetting system, but he also dragged the previous administration into the case, citing the withdrawal of the Justice Minister nominee Ahn Kyong-whan six years ago. Ahn quit after admitting to secretly filing a marriage certificate without the consent of his unwitting bride in 1975.

The ruling side's acts are seen as a tactic to regain public sentiment by causing resentment against the previous administration while rallying its suppers to take the initiative in the lead-up to next year's general election. However, there are already growing deleterious whispers within the party, questioning whether this approach will work in the election.

It might be possible for the president and the ruling party to raise their approval ratings in the first year of a new administration, but given the general election is scheduled to take place on April 10, 2024, when President Yoon enters his third year in office, it remains to be seen if the ruling bloc will be successful in the election by merely bashing the previous administration.

Kang Seung-woo is political editor at The Korea Times.