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| People watch the first TV debate among four of the presidential candidates on a screen in Seoul Station, Wednesday. The four candidates were Lee Jae-myung of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP), Sim Sang-jung of the minor opposition progressive Justice Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition conservative People's Party. Yonhap |
More debates needed to help voters decide: experts
By Jung Da-min
The first TV debate among four of the presidential candidates was held Thursday evening, with a little more than a month to go until the March 9 election, but there was no one who left the arena having clearly impressed the viewers.
The debate ― cohosted by the three local broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS ― drew much attention as many voters said they would consider the content of the debate in making their decision on how to vote.
But experts said there was no surefire winner due to several factors, adding that more TV debates are needed to help voters decide.
Some said that the four candidates representing different parties have succeeded in presenting different policy directions as to how they would administer state affairs if elected as the next president, but others said most of the candidates failed to present their strengths in such a way that makes them stand out from their competitors.
During the debate, the rival candidates of country's two major parties ― Lee Jae-myung of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP) ― traded barbs over a controversial land development project in the Daejang-dong area of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.
The snowballing scandal surrounding the highly lucrative land development project has been a major issue during the election campaign. The PPP and Yoon have criticized Lee over the suspicion that he gave business "favors" to an asset management company and its trust account company while he was mayor of Seongnam.
But Lee defended himself by saying that he had been trying to maximize the public interest through a public-private partnership, despite the opposition of PPP members of the city council who opposed Lee's original plan for a 100 percent public development.
Cha Jae-won, a professor of special affairs at the Catholic University of Pusan, said that the TV debate offered more grounds for voters to make judgments concerning the Daejang-dong land development scandal, as they were able to listen to different statements on the issue from both Yoon and Lee.
"Although the truth of the Daejang-dong land development scandal has yet to be clarified, those who watched the TV debate would have found some points they could sympathize with, either from Yoon's statements or Lee's," Cha said.
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| Lee Jae-myung, left, the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), and Yoon Suk-yeol, right, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), appear before the first TV debate among four of the presidential candidates, held at a studio of local broadcaster KBS on Seoul's Yeouido, Wednesday. The other two minor opposition candidates included Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party. Joint Press Corps |
"The debate touched on many other different topics, including security and real estate policies ― some major issues the country is facing. Such topics included security issues like the deployment of U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles in South Korea amid the growing rivalry between the U.S. and China, as well as how to deal with the soaring housing prices. As the four candidates presented their own policy visions, people were able to find some points that they could sympathize more with."
As to the matter of THAAD, Yoon has said additional THAAD batteries need to be deployed in South Korea to counter the growing missile threats from North Korea, while Lee criticized Yoon for causing unnecessary tensions on the Korean Peninsula and causing China to object, which could harm trade relations with South Korea's largest trading partner.
As to the matter of stabilizing the real estate market, Lee and Ahn Cheol-soo of the minor opposition conservative People's Party vowed to increase the housing supply, although they differed over the details of how to realize it. Yoon vowed to mitigate market regulations and Sim Sang-jung of the minor opposition progressive Justice Party vowed to decrease housing prices by achieving a social consensus.
But experts said that the first TV debate would not have a huge impact on voters' choice, as most of the candidates failed to leave a strong impression while simply repeating their previous stances.
"The DPK's Lee has said that he would compete with the other candidates on the basis of his own policy visions, but they did not leave much impact during the debate. It would have been much more impressive if he had presented objective data such as statistics to refute other candidates' claims and present his own," political commentator Lee Jong-hoon said.
"For the PPP's Yoon, it seems that he was too focused on the Daejang-dong land development scandal, as he only repeated his previous criticism, without any new 'smoking-gun' proof."
Regarding the other two third-party candidates, Sim and Ahn, experts had mixed responses.
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| Sim Sang-jung, right, the presidential candidate of the Justice Party, and Ahn Cheol-soo, left, the presidential candidate of the People's Party, fist-bump each other before the first four-way TV debate among the presidential candidates, also including Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea and Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party. Joint Press Corps |
Cha said that Sim was a great debater but faced a structural obstacle as a minor candidate.
"Sim has made many good points when criticizing the two mainstream candidates' policy directions, but she was not given enough time to make appeals based on her own policy visions, as she did not receive many questions from the other competitors as a minor candidate," Cha said.
Cha said that Ahn did well in achieving a consensus among the four candidates during the debate as to the need to carry out reforms of the national pension system, regardless of who is elected as the next president. But Cha said that Ahn was being "too cautious" and did not leave a strong impression or make any notable remarks.
Commentator Lee said that he believes Sim was the best debater in the first TV debate.
"Sim was the only candidate who appealed to voters with clear messages of her political visions while also providing objective data and figures like statistics when refuting other candidates' remarks," he concluded.
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