ed Start of race

Voters should realize new politics through ballots

The by-election to pick a new Seoul mayor and 41 other local officials entered its 13-day formal campaign at midnight Wednesday.

Attracting national attention is who will be the next chief executive of the capital city, largely because the result will also likely affect next year’s parliamentary and presidential elections.

Interested voters already have plenty of information on the two major nominees ― Rep. Na Kyung-won of the governing Grand National Party and lawyer-turned-civic activist Park Won-soon ― who have conducted informal campaigns since they registered candidacy a week ago.

As in any election, the two key criteria are person and platform ― who they are and what policy they will promote. Voters should in this regard peel off both candidates’ shadowy images and see their substances. Na is attractive and clever, but her legislative record is disappointing. Activist Park boasts a clean image but has yet to clarify parts of his personal history and close relationship with corporate donors.

It is good to hear the two put forth campaign pledges mostly aimed at improving the lives of working-class people, unlike outgoing Mayor Oh Se-hoon who was mainly bent on showy construction projects. Yet the voters ought to specifically question how they would find the financial resources without increasing taxes.

Most promising are their pledges to break away from the old politics of personal slander and false propaganda. There are only two problems in this: almost all past candidates made similar promises but didn’t keep their word, and the lines are blurry that distinguish character assassination from justifiable calls for verifying records and remarks. We urge campaigners to refrain from mud-slinging and play fair, and hope that voters can be discerning.

The reality, however, is shattering such expectations already. The ruling party has been trying to reveal Park’s alleged lies about his personal history, such as how his grandfather’s brother avoided recruitment as forced laborers under Japanese colonial rule. The opposition Democratic Party’s accusation of President Lee Myung-bak with respect to his problematic retirement home, which, though a serious political issue itself, should have little direct relationship to the mayoral election. These politicians should stop going back to the politics people have long grown sick of.

All this makes the role of voters, especially younger ones, more important than ever. The more they are disillusioned with these dirty, old-era politics, the more actively they should express their opinions ― through ballots. Street demonstrations and campus protests are fine, but the young voters should realize going to the polls is the best ways to make changes.

If the candidates vie with policies, not politics, and voters discern who is following new and old politics through active participation, it would matter little which one wins. The eventual winner will be Korean democracy, or new politics, in which the process is more important than the result.