Shame on opposition
DPK will face grave crisis without complete overhaul
Rep. Lee Jae-myung marked the first anniversary of his inauguration as chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Monday. He has just passed the mid-point of his two-year term. Lee has clung on to the DPK's key leadership position in the face of brewing disputes, still fresh from his defeat in the presidential election only six months ago. However, Lee has mostly disappointed the public, having failed to effectively lead over the past year the gigantic majority that the party currently enjoys.
Under Lee's leadership, the DPK has failed to provide substantial policies that are appealing enough to earn people's support. To the contrary, the party has been bogged down by in-house conflicts, unable to find a solution for a much-needed revamp following the presidential poll. The party faced a serious setback as many of its members were found to have received slush money during the national convention in 2021. Rep. Kim Nam-guk also dealt a blow to the DPK due to his alleged possession and trading of a huge sum of cryptocurrencies.
Such cases aggravated public opinion toward the party. A National Barometer Survey conducted last week showed that the DPK got only a 23 percent approval rating, compared to the 31 percent that it earned in a similar survey carried out in the second week of September last year.
Despite deepening public distrust, Lee has yet to display efficient leadership. Criticism over the DPK's ethical standards has grown further. Desperate to tackle the crisis, the party formed a committee by inviting figures from outside. Yet the committee has also remained incapacitated and could not pick up steam, being forced to terminate its activities far earlier than planned. The party members were divided into pro-Lee and anti-Lee factions, fiercely confronting each other on many major issues.
Most of all, the prolonged judiciary risk surrounding Lee has been his personal Achilles' heel and also the weakness of the DPK. Lee has seen prosecutors investigate him five times in connection with land development projects in Daejang-dong and Baekhyeon-dong in Seongnam City, Gyeonggi Province, plus an illegal sponsorship issue involving football club, Seongnam FC.
Now, he is poised to appear for another prosecution probe regarding his alleged involvement in Ssangbanwool Group's alleged sending of money to North Korea.
Lee must look back on why such judiciary risks continue to haunt him. It is largely due to a lack of effort to clear the numerous suspicions surrounding him. For one thing, the DPK has been criticized for having resorted to the so-called "bullet-proof" Assembly as a way to protect Lee from possible arrest.
Thirty-one DPK lawmakers caught Lee off guard when they cast their vote as "yes" in response to the arrest motion against Lee in February. This further escalated the dispute over Lee's leadership and factional strife. Rep. Lee Sang-min, speaking on behalf of the anti-Lee faction, threatened Friday that the party will face a schism unless Lee steps down soon.
Lee vowed efforts to "take power again" when assuming the party chairmanship. For this, Lee stressed the need for the party to double down on enhancing the livelihoods of the people. Now it is time for Lee to reflect on what he and the party did toward that end over the past year and explore answers needed in the future. Such goals cannot be achieved at all unless Lee and the DPK carry out thorough innovation and reform.
Lee should dare to distance himself from the extreme fan group dubbed "gaettal" (daughters of reform), composed of young and female supporters, and take feasible steps to discard fandom politics, in a bid to overcome the internal discord and expand the party's external territories.
Now only seven months are left before the general election. And the regular session of the National Assembly will begin next week. It is high time Lee and the main opposition party earn the public's support through optimum policies, instead of engaging in disgusting politicking.
Source: Yonhap News Agency