Chun's win gives wakeup call to NPAD

Independent lawmaker Chun Jung-bae, left, is greeted by a fellow lawmaker in the National Assembly, April 30, a day after he won a by-election in Gwangju. / Yonhap

Opposition worried over split of party

By Kang Hyun-kyung

The victory of independent Chun Jung-bae in the liberals’ home turf Gwangju election last week is poised to become the epicenter of a political earthquake in the opposition camp.

Immediately after winning the election by a wide margin, the former justice minister under the late former Roh Moo-hyun government promised to create a new party that can serve the best interests of voters in the region.

Chun promised that he would mobilize fresh, intelligent aspiring politicians who respond to voters under the new party project and those talented people will run in next year’s parliamentary elections on its ticket.

The presence of a new liberal party representing the stronghold of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) will mean a split of the opposition camp. And the loser could well be the NPAD.

A sense of urgency is spreading fast throughout the main opposition party in the wake of the April 29 by-elections. Calls for retooling the liberal party from within are mounting. Party members are aware that reforms are not an option but a must to ensure their survival. But few seem to know in which direction they should go.

Chun’s strong showing in the April 29 by-election in the Seo-B district of the southwestern city, which is portrayed as the holy city for political uprisings and pro-democracy movements when the authoritarian leaders were in office until the 1980s, has had a profound effect on the NPAD.

Chun garnered over 52 percent of votes cast, defeating his NPAD rival by a wide margin.

The by-election results put the main opposition NPAD into chaos as the former justice minister won there about a year after conservative lawmaker Lee Jung-hyun’s sensational victory in another NPAD stronghold in Jeolla Province.

The main opposition party is in shock.

Rep. Kim Dong-cheol of the NPAD said on Sunday that the liberal party must take appropriate measures to stop worsening public opinion that the party treated its home turf and its citizens badly.

“We are now seeing that voters in our key support base in Jeolla Province are turning their back on us,” he said during a news conference to declare his bid to become NPAD floor leader in the National Assembly.

“We must do something to stop our supporters’ hatred toward us. Otherwise, they will drive us out of the political arena in next year’s National Assembly election.”

Kim called the NPAD’s consecutive defeats in elections in its home turf “disasters” and warnings from voters to the liberal party.

NPAD leader Moon Jae-in took the election results seriously. His aide said Moon will head to Gwangju this week on a listening tour. The former presidential candidate, who lost the 2012 presidential election to then ruling Saenuri Party candidate Park Geun-hye by a narrow margin, will meet voters in person there to find out what they feel is wrong with his party.

Since he was elected leader, Moon, a conservative home turf Busan native, has had the big picture of the presidency in his head, according to political analysts.

He strove to widen the party’s support base into non-Jeolla provinces as he learned himself through the presidential election that to be elected president, he has to work on voters in other regions.

Moon’s effort to woo such voters may have caused NPAD home turf voters to believe he was neglecting them.

The National Assembly elections are a year ahead, and Moon has this in mind. If nothing is done now, he knows it will be inevitable for the main opposition party to be crushed again.

Moon has been quiet since he pledged at a meeting with senior NPAD members on April 30 that he would seek bigger reform while declining to give further details. He exchanged ideas with them about how to reform the liberal party.

Those who are familiar with the opposition party said that a consensus about the need for a task force in charge of overhauling the party system was reached inside the NPAD.

Some say that outside experts will be invited to lead the team, which can analyze what went wrong with the opposition party.