0320-Opposition in disarray

Democrats should rebuild party on clearer platforms

If there is a political group more deplorable than the stubborn president and her submissive governing party, it is the disjointed main opposition party.

President Park Geun-hye apparently thinks her election victory gave her a blank check for running state affairs, restructuring the government and nominating Cabinet ministers without consulting even her own party, let alone seeking the opinions of opposition leaders.

The ruling Saenuri Party dares not raise a protest of Park’s arbitrary governance style even when her aides reverse their words on major campaign pledges without showing any signs of regret for voters.

Yet it is the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) that bears the brunt of popular criticism of this administrative logjam by appearing to play the role of obstructionists. We don’t think the DUP is opposing the president’s various agenda for opposition’s sake. If a considerable number of people see the largest opposition party as an unproductive obstructer, however, it should ponder why.

The biggest reason is the factional strife over responsibility for the election loss and party hegemony without genuine reflection on what has gone wrong. It is small surprise then that the DUP is at an utter loss how to deal with Ahn Cheol-soo, an ally-turned-rival who went to the United States on the voting day and returned Monday, nearly three months later.

Ahn, who conceded candidacy in the presidential election to DUP candidate Moon Jae-in just before the poll, said at the airport he would no longer go with the DUP but take an independent political course, probably by forming a new party. The IT guru-turned-college professor-turned-politician, who stirred a whirlwind with his slogan of ``new, clean politics” last year, still enjoys considerable popular support, especially because the existing parties are mired in political gridlock over almost every issue.

We can hardly agree with Ahn’s political opportunism. His concession of the candidacy was hardly spontaneous and he should have stayed in Korea reflecting on the liberal opposition’s defeat and analyzing its reasons instead of flying to the U.S. as an escape. This is not the 1970s and 80s when civilian political leaders went into self-imposed exile to avoid military dictators’ persecution. Ahn is planning to run in a by-election in a Seoul precinct vacated by a progressive lawmaker’s conviction, for an easy comeback.   

Most political analysts say that in the last presidential election, voters, although they were disillusioned with President Lee Myung-bak’s dismal governance of five years, opted for stability instead of the populist demagoguery of liberals in the preceding 10 years.

As this page has repeatedly said, however, the biggest mistake of liberal governments was not their pro-working class policies but their failure to implement them with concrete, and consistent, actions.

As expected, Park and her Saenuri Party are showing most of their welfare policies were not meant for implementation but just vote-getting decoys. What the oppositionists should do is to force the ruling camp to keep their promises, not split into shreds against a united conservative party.

It’s time for the opposition to unite and jointly agonize over what is best for Korea’s political development and the liberals’ most proper contribution to it.

This is The Korea Times editorial for Tuesday, March, 12, 2013.