Moon offers Ahn political alliance

Opposition candidate adopts 3-step formula for unified candidacy

By Chung Min-uck

Rep. Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), made an offer Sunday to independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo to set up a joint committee on political reform that could eventually lead to a unified candidacy between the two.

Ahn’s side declined Moon’s offer, which was based on a political professor’s suggestion. This is the first time either side has officially come up with a concrete proposal for an opposition alliance in the lead up to the Dec. 19 election.

“Moon sees an alliance with Ahn as a must for regime change and political reform,” said Jin Sung-joon, his spokesman. “Moon has accepted professor Cho Kuk’s proposal of forming a joint political reform committee with Ahn. We officially suggested launching the body with Cho as chairman.”

Cho, a professor at Seoul National University, earlier announced a three-step approach for an Ahn-Moon alliance that would start with the formation of a joint committee. This would be followed by creating joint policies and tuning the human resources in both camps, according to the professor.

The law scholar is a leading progressive voice in the opposition, allegedly having stakes in both camps.

However, Ahn’s side reacted negatively to the proposal, sticking to its original position.

“Ahn has already presented the requirements for an opposition coalition with Moon,” Yoo Min-young, the spokesman for Ahn’s camp, told The Korea Times, Sunday. “We cannot accept an offer of an alliance.”

Ahn earlier pledged efforts to revamp the “outdated political system” and suggested “thorough political reform” and “public approval” as two preconditions for an opposition coalition.

Observers say at this point Moon is more eager to discuss an opposition alliance than Ahn as he believes it will help him gain the upper hand in the selection of a unified candidate.

“Moon’s popularity has been rising lately and he wants to engage in discussion right away, before momentum dies out,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior researcher at the Korea Society Opinion Institute. “Ahn’s supporters distrust the established political landscape. Moon is aiming to shut down Ahn’s popularity by placing him inside the framework of an opposition alliance. Ahn’s popularity is likely to fall if he is viewed as engaging the DUP.”

The DUP candidate earlier denounced Ahn saying a non-party president cannot properly operate a state and urged him to join his party.

Moon also offered Ahn a new platform on power-sharing between a president and prime minister.

Various opinion polls show that Ahn and Moon will inevitably lose to Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party if they choose to run separately.

Meanwhile, Ahn announced Sunday a comprehensive policy on “economic democratization” focusing on reforming big conglomerates, known here as chaebol.

This comes as the frontrunner candidates are vying to woo voters with pledges to ensure fair business practices and protecting small- and medium-sized businesses by restricting the conglomerates.

Chaebol reform has become a core political issue ahead of the Dec. 19 presidential election due to a widening income gap.

The entrepreneur-turned-professor said he will strictly enforce existing regulations to rein in unfair practices of chaebol such as funneling work to their subsidiaries and granting pardons to their heads convicted of embezzlement and other legal breaches, if he takes office.

If those steps prove insufficient, Ahn plans to apply more drastic measures such as ordering the breakup of conglomerates and their affiliates to loosen their power.

“Economic democratization is a constitutional value a president needs to preserve,” said Ahn. “There is no future in an old economy in which riches are accumulated through special privileges and foul play and where opportunities are taken away.”