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| Kim Chong-in, right, head of the main opposition United Future Party's emergency committee, talks during a committee meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. To reform the conservative party, Kim has recently brought up liberal issues such as introducing a basic income system and an all-day childcare support system. Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
As the country is facing an economic crisis due to the COVID-19 situation, politicians have begun to discuss welfare agendas such as introducing a basic income system or an all-day childcare support system.
What is drawing attention is that it is the conservative main opposition United Future Party (UFP) that has been quick to raise such issues, which have been usually pursued by liberals, in political debates, even before the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the minor opposition Justice Party of the country's liberal bloc.
The party's interim leader Kim Chong-in, a veteran economist and politician who now heads the UFP's emergency committee, has brought up these topics since he declared earlier in the month that he would make the party "a forward-looking party which stays ahead of liberal parties."
Kim's attempt to change the party's stance and policy goals is aimed at winning the UFP more public support after the conservative party garnered only 103 seats out of the 300-strong National Assembly in the April 15 general election, while the ruling DPK has secured a supermajority of 176 seats ― reduced by one from 177 with Rep. Park Byeong-seug leaving the party after elected as speaker of the 21st National Assembly on June 5.
Pledging a reform, he said the party needs to abandon the policies and "conservative" values the party had presented, because they were only regarded as outdated and did not appeal to the public at all.
He also raised the issue of basic income last week saying the people should be given economic freedom in which "those who feel hungry can buy bread." This has brought other political heavyweights of both liberal and conservative blocs to jump in on debates over the idea of introducing a basic income system.
And this week, Kim again brought up an idea of expanded welfare system in which elementary and middle schools provide an all-day childcare program. He suggested the idea as a solution to the country's low birthrate and high dependence on private education.
He said, if schools do not provide care programs after school, children of double-income parents are given two options ― going to a hagwon for private education or not ― and these options are decided according to the parents' income level. He said if public education does not take responsibility for childcare, inequality in education will be solidified according to the parents' ability to afford private education.
Political watchers said Kim's opting for liberal agendas and other political heavyweights joining relevant debates showed that such issues are also expected to be hot topics in the upcoming presidential election in March 2022.
It has yet to be seen, however, if the UFP could make a turn to such "forward-looking policies," as some party members are expressing concerns that the party is losing its conservative identity.
Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong, a UFP member, said that the party should keep its conservative spirit, or it will end up being a "poor imitator of the liberal bloc."
Comparing the UFP's situation to a soccer game in which its team is losing to its counterpart in the first half, Won said what it needs is not a victory by a "mercenary player" but a victory by its own members. But when asked about the statement by reporters he denied he was referring to Kim when he said "mercenary."
"The real problem is not about achieving a victory but about how to achieve it and what is most important is that we should make our own victory," Won said at a forum held at the National Assembly, Tuesday. "It should not be a victory by mercenary players but by ourselves, the commanding members of the conservative bloc who have been leading bold changes in the history of the country."
