Mr. President, stop acting like amateur

President Moon Jae-in welcomes Jeffrey Jones, chairman of the board of American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) Korea, during a meeting Moon hosted for foreign businesspeople at Cheong Wa Dae, March 28. Yonhap

By Oh Young-jin

Take a step back and it is easier to see how political battle lines are moving.

The conservatives are concentrating their fire power on President Moon Jae-in's nominees for Cabinet ministers. Two were knocked out. In the process, a presidential spokesman was forced to resign. The new senior secretary, an immediate senior to "the President's mouthpiece," was seriously wounded for jumping into the fray when he was not supposed to. He is keeping his job just because he is new and, more importantly, Cheong Wa Dae doesn't want to give satisfaction to the opposition.

Of course, I am using a figure of speech to describe the current political goings-on. After all, politics is a game of winning the hearts and minds of the voters, and making it difficult to play is the unpredictable part of politics, which the late political master Kim Dae-jung compared to a living creature.

Besides the partisan nature of politics, it is important to think of the purpose of the Liberty Korea Party (LPK), now leading the onslaught on the Moon Jae-in government. It doesn't take a political scientist to know ― hurting the reputation of the President and gnawing at his political capital. It is a rudimentary political gambit to attack the President to sway voters. On the docket are the April 15, 2020, general elections and the presidential election expected in March 2022.

Lawmakers of the main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party stage a sit-in protest to criticize President Moon Jae-in's minister nominees for their disqualifying flaws at the Rotunda Hall in the National Assembly, March 29. Yonhap

Although it is too early, the conservatives would like to believe that the writing is on the wall ― meaning the voters are starting to rally back around them, as shown in the latest two by-elections that were split between the LKP and the liberal party. Unbelievably, the LKP belongs to the same people who worked with and served the impeached Park Geun-hye and the alleged swindler Lee Myung-bak. The latest statistics show the LKP is following on the heels of the progressive governing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). Only two years ago, the entire nation erupted through the Candlelight Revolution in anger over the incompetence of Park, the first daughter of the army general-turned-dictator Park Chung-hee, with the conservatives forced to bow their heads in shame.

Also, Politics 101 would tell that the President and the ruling party are on the defensive because they are in power and responsible for leading the government.

Yoon Do-han, the new senior presidential press secretary, was not wrong to say that the current vetting system for ministers and other key political appointees has room for improvement. Even his defense of two sons of Professor Cho Dong-ho, former science minister nominee, riding in a $35,000 Porsche and a $30,000 Mercedes while studying in the U.S., is hard to find fault with legally and logically (if he had stayed with his previous job with the pro-government MBC network TV).

Senior Presidential Press Secretary Yoon Do-han adjusts the mikes before announcing the withdrawal of the nomination for Cho Dong-ho as science and technology minister, March 31. Yonhap

Here is a small diversion. CARFAX, a website of used cars in the U.S., shows few of luxury German sports cars in the $30,000 range in the first pages. One is the 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 with the price tag of a shade over $30,000. A 2018 Porsche Carrera 911 GT3 is priced at $169,950. I can only guess Cho's son lived out his dream of driving a German sports vehicle but on a budget. If he had chosen a new, eco-friendly Tesla Model 3 with a basic price of $35,000, he could have spared his father from being pilloried and President Moon would not have withdrawn his nomination.

President Moon Jae-in listens to a briefing about wild fires in Goseung, Gangwon Province, early Friday morning. Yonhap

Overall, the conservatives are riding high, not on their merit of the moral high ground and competence (I would only be sympathetic of the Moon government because the conservatives' rule could be worse).

Their persistence is laudable. Their real target is temporarily hidden in plain sight amid the ongoing hue and cry. Cho Kuk is a law professor now working as senior presidential secretary for civil affairs. His office covers vetting senior appointees, reforming the power-hungry prosecution and, most importantly, the current government's all-encompassing goal of liquidating evil practices and their perpetrators. So knocking Cho off from his job would damage Moon's authority, derail his entire agenda and ultimately turn the political page, with voters to pass judgment on an incompetent president and his cabal. It is a winning template for the opposition. It would be very hard to find a replacement for Cho and most likely the presidential office would end up with a former prosecutor, which means Moon's reform agenda is as good as dead.

The biggest sin by Yoon and Kim Eui-kyeom, the spokesman who stepped down, is that they didn't understand the mercurial political context when they spoke and how their public utterances affected their boss. Cho, Yoon and Kim are all amateurs with no experience in the jobs they hold or held. But President Moon is different. He is a battle-experienced veteran, working Cho's job and as chief of staff under late President Roh Moo-hyun, a high school graduate and a human rights lawyer, who called becoming president his biggest legacy. Roh was ready to wade into any controversy with little fear, whether in front of TV cameras or before a crowd, overriding the opposition of his lieutenants.

True, Roh did oversell himself but Moon appears the opposite. Roh wouldn't sit and watch his lieutenants make mistakes and get politically slaughtered. It is not clear whether Moon is biding his time to face the music or remains shy. But at stake is his presidency. People want to see their president take responsibility, face the blame and lead. Remember Teddy Roosevelt's bully pulpit. I hope President Moon uses his big gun of presidential power to speak to the people, because his small guns misfire or shoot duds too often.

Oh Young-jin (foolsdie@gmail,com, foolsdie@koreatimes.co.kr) is the digital managing editor of The Korea Times.

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