By Jun Ji-hye
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) is embroiled in a fresh round of ideological conflict between its progressive and ideologically-moderate blocs.
The struggle for the political line is also seen as the generational discord as the elders and long-term lawmakers insist the DUP should take the ideologically-moderate course, while the younger factions claim that the party has to maintain the progressive stance.
The disputes are expected to intensify ahead of the party’s national convention slated for May 4 and the scheduled revision of the party constitution.
The struggle began Monday after Rep. Moon Hee-sang, DUP chairman, said, “The DUP was ruined as it has moved to the left wing,” on JTBC, one of the general programming cable networks.
“The DUP should move back to the political center as it was the original course of the party since late President Kim Dae-jung formed the Peace Democratic Party in the 1980s,” he said.
Lee Boo-young, a senior advisor, also said, “The DUP needs to widen the scope of its supporters,” while another advisor Chung Dae-chul insisted that, “The DUP has to attract support from voters in the middle-of-the road as well as in the center-right.”
In response, Rep. Jin Sung-joon, the leader of the party’s innovative activities among first-term lawmakers, said Wednesday, “It is Moon’s subjective judgment.”
Jin claimed democratization of the economy and expansion of welfare, the buzzwords of last year’s presidential election, were all in accordance with progressive ideas and the election played a role in deciding who had the better abilities to achieve those.
“The DUP should steer the progressive line and mull ways to give a shape to this in order to improve the quality of life of the public,” he said.
Rep. Hong Young-pyo also expressed skepticism about Moon’s view, saying “I don’t agree to choose the centrist course as the party’s entire line.”
Moon’s appearance on JTBC also triggered complaints from some left-leaning lawmakers, because they are opposed to DUP lawmakers’ appearance in the general programming channels in protest of the controversial revision of the Media Law in 2009.
It was this revision that paved the way for channels like ― CSTV, JTBC, Channel A and MBN ― operated by the nation’s major conservative dailies to launch their services.
Meanwhile, the recent survey showed that more DUP members as well as increasingly, the general public want the party to follow the middle course.
In the survey of 1,000 DUP members and 1,000 members of the public conducted on Tuesday by Realmeter, 45.9 percent DUP members and 47.2 percent of the public chose the middle as the appropriate line for the DUP. The number was compared to 34.1 and 28.2, who selected the progressive line, respectively.