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| Rep. Song Young-gil, center, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), speaks during a Supreme Council meeting of the party at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap |
By Jung Da-min
Calls are growing within the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) for an overall reform of the party, in response to a young politician’s rise in the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) and following public expectations for fresh politics with a generational shift.
With the PPP set to elect its new leadership at a party convention slated for June 11, Lee Jun-seok, a 36-year-old politician and former member of the PPP’s Supreme Council, has risen as the leading candidate to be the party’s next chairman, garnering the highest support in recent opinion polls.
Political watchers said the young politician’s rise seems to be a reflection of the people’s disappointment with policy failures of established politicians of both the current liberal and past conservative administrations, as well as a desire for a change and innovation in politics.
In such a context, some member of the DPK said that the ruling party also needs to carry out an overall reform to restore public confidence. Rep. Cho Eung-cheon, a two-term lawmaker of the DPK, said that he understood the PPP members’ desperate desire to win the next presidential election slated for March next year.
“I fear that it could be possible that the PPP will not only be recognized as an alternative to the DPK but as a new political force that answers to the people’s request to resolve longtime social irregularities and absurdities, if Lee Jun-seok gets elected at the PPP’s convention and the new leadership system under him works properly afterward,” Cho wrote on Facebook, Monday.
Cho also expressed concerns about some “enthusiastic supporters” of the DPK who keep voicing support for former Justice Minister Cho Kuk who stepped down in October 2019 over corruption scandals involving his family members. While court trials of the cases are ongoing, the former minister Cho released an autographic memoir of his political career, Monday, in which he insisted his innocence.
When the ruling party pushed ahead with his appointment as minister, saying he was the most capable and suitable person to lead the Moon Jae-in administration’s prosecutorial reform, the opposition bloc heavily protested the decision citing the corruption scandal. The public was also divided, with supporters and opponents each holding rallies.
As the allegations against him were a shock to many citizens who expected the Moon administration to be transparent and corruption-free, the scandal served as momentum for such people to withdraw their support for the Moon government. Some political analysts say the criticism of the current government’s “double standard” on corruption cases committed by ruling bloc figures began with the Cho scandal and eventually led to the DPK’s crushing defeat in the April 7 Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections.
But along with the publication, many DPK members, especially some heavyweights including former DPK Chairman Rep. Lee Nak-yon and former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, who are expected to run in the party’s presidential candidate primary, issued supportive messages for the former minister.
However, Rep. Cho said, “It is very embarrassing for the party that the person who is considered to have been the main reason for the party’s election defeat released his memoirs when the party is trying to listen to public opinion.”
He urged the party leadership to make clear its position on the matter of Cho Kuk’s memoir, so that it can continue political reform and regain public trust.
Rep. Lee Sang-min, a five-term lawmaker of the DPK, also wrote on Facebook: “The first step is to break the evil habit that has spread widely and deeply in the DPK … (the habit of) not listening to the general public’s voices while only paying attention to party members, using double standards when judging wrongdoings of the party’s own members while blaming others for their wrongdoings.”
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