Too big to give up?

By Park Moo-jong

Just six months are left until the -elections are held for mayors of the nation's two largest cities, Seoul and Busan, which are expected to serve as a crucial barometer of public opinion ahead of the next presidential poll slated for March 2022.

Coincidentally, the top posts of Seoul with more than 10 million inhabitants and Busan with 3.5 million out of the nation's total population of 52 million are vacant after Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon committed suicide 100 days ago and Busan Mayor Oh Ke-don resigned a year ago, both due to their sexual harassment of their secretaries.

While the entire nation is fighting hard against the stubborn COVID-19 virus and various corruption scandals are hitting the political world hard amid worsening economic circumstances, the public concern is focused on who will run for the coveted seats.

The by-elections are meaningful as they will be precious events for voters to judge the performance of the incumbent government and ruling bloc with President Moon Jae-in having only a year left in office.

For now several candidates from the ruling and opposition camps are turning up, some on their own, and some recommended by others.

Yet, the basic question of the by-elections is whether or not the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) will field its candidates. Of course, there will be no problem for a political party to enter the race. But what matters is that the posts were vacated in cases involving the mayors' sexual harassment of junior staff.

The constitution of the DPK stipulates in Clause 2 of Article 96 that the party shall not nominate a candidate in a by-election for public office that its member lost due to his or her grave injustice or corruption.

It is quite natural and common sense that the DPK should not field candidates for the mayoral by-elections as a political party that must strictly abide by its own constitutional rules.

Unfortunately, however, what's going on inside and outside of the absolute majority party shows a clear sign that it is going against the principle with an attitude of easy defiance.

The DPK appears to be disobeying its own constitution too easily without taking any follow-up measures to show people that it was taking responsibility for wrongdoing by its members, especially those by its top leaders.

Surprisingly, it was not the largest opposition People Power Party (PPP) but the splinter Justice Party that formally criticized the ruling party's shameless attitude, demanding that it should not field candidates to live up to its promise to the people in its constitution.

The new leader of the Justice Party, known so far to be a friend of DPK, made a just demand this time, living up to his party's name. It is a pity that the PPP has not yet come up with any righteous measures to counter the DPK's unfair move against its constitution.

It is regrettable that the PPP has still not figured out why it suffered such a miserable, humiliating defeat in the April 15 general election. Unless it overcomes the persisting internal feud over its leadership and upcoming elections, there will be no way for it to win the people over.

Earlier, some leaders of the DPK claimed that they could indeed nominate candidates for the by-elections, despite their leading members' wrongdoings, because the polls were "so big and our party's fate will depend on them."

In particular, Kim Boo-kyum, a runner-up in the party leadership race after Rep. Lee Nak-yeon, said, "It has become too big an issue to adhere to the party's internal rules. We'll have to respect party members' opinion on whether to nominate candidates." What sophistry!

If so, DPK lawmakers are lawbreakers who all too easily disrespect party rules and regulations.

One of the most important assets and virtues of a politician is honesty accompanied by keeping promise and not telling lies. The DPK promises in its constitution that it will not field candidates in by-elections to be held due to its members' injustice and corruption.

If the DPK has not the slightest intention of abiding by its constitution, the party ought to revise it. But according to the DPK, it will field its candidates in any by-elections, no matter why the polls are being held.

The mayoral posts of Seoul and Busan are really too big to give to any one political party. Since the by-elections take place in the nation's two most populated cities, the results are also expected to impact the presidential poll to be held one year later.

The loss will be painful and tremendous to the DPK. But it should not lie. It should keep its own rules. Otherwise, it could lose more in seeking immediate gain. And there is no "guarantee" the DPK will win.

I believe that DPK leaders know the following fact: Seoul and Busan residents will pay for the cost of the by-elections for the remaining one-year term amounting to about 84 billion won ($70 million) with their taxes ― without state subsidies and despite the DPK members' sexual harassment scandals.

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.