Progressive party’s path

DPK should focus on people’s livelihood

President Yoon Suk Yeol may be popular in the U.S. and Japan, but he is not favored as much in Korea.

Yoon’s approval rating has rarely exceeded 40 percent since he took office nearly 17 months ago. And his social, economic and foreign policies have won the support of only some right-wingers and those with vested interests.

However, the conservative leader seldom appears to put the best interests of the nation before his own, acting as he pleases. That’s mainly because the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) gets an even lower popularity rating than Yoon and his rubberstamp ruling party. Pity the Korean voters.

At the center of the struggling DPK is its leader, Rep. Lee Jae-myung.

Lee, who lost to Yoon by a wafer-thin margin of 0.7 percent in the last election, has been “exposed to judicial risk” for nearly two years. He is accused of bribery, breach of trust, and other charges. The center-left politician pleads his innocence, saying the prosecutor-turned-president is trying to “kill a political rival” by using law enforcement officers.

Many voters suspect Yoon has political motivations persecuting Lee. Still, they don’t feel much sympathy for Lee, thinking the opposition leader uses his party for personal purposes. A few days ago, Lee ended his 24-day hunger strike aimed at protesting against a “prosecutorial dictatorship.” Unlike the struggles of the 1980s to regain democracy from military dictators, the latest one failed to trigger much support for similar reasons.

On Wednesday, Lee staved off another prosecutorial attempt to detain him as a Seoul court rejected their arrest warrant. By avoiding a worst-case scenario, the opposition leader will hit back against the prosecution and strengthen his weakened party leadership. A new DPK floor leader elected the previous day also called for unity under Lee until they win next April’s parliamentary elections. Lee might think he has surmounted the first big hurdle toward rechallenging the presidency.

As everybody knows, however, avoiding detention is different from acquittal. Lee’s legal battle will continue until he is cleared of all charges by the court — or until Yoon’s term ends.

The president has refused to meet Lee face to face, saying, “Meeting with a suspect will influence legal proceedings.” Yoon’s behavior is problematic less because the former prosecutor does not respect the presumption of innocence than because he stifles domestic politics by not recognizing his opposition counterpart. Yet, voters weary of partisan bickering rebuke both sides.

What Lee should do going forward is clear.

Above all, he must minimize his legal battle’s effects on his party and the overall political scene. He must unite the DPK by embracing the “non-Lee” faction. If Lee yields to his fanatical followers in and outside the party to ferret out and punish about 30 “rebels” — those who voted to let prosecutors seek the arrest warrant — voters will turn away from the DPK. He must make his fight personal.

Lee has some things in common with Donald Trump. They are election losers and want a rematch. Both are involved in multiple trials but claim they are the victims of a political vendetta. However, unlike Trump, who is popular and may win, Lee has a long way to go to win over voters.

That adds a critical reason why Lee and his party must stop political bickering, both internal or external, and focus on substantive issues. The center-of-left party must show why it is an alternative to the far-right Yoon and his People Power Party (PPP). The opposition party must make Koreans feel safer and better-to-do by promising to resume inter-Korean dialogue amid balanced diplomacy, pursue better redistribution, and guarantee “genuine,” instead of ideological, freedom, including press freedom.

If Lee and the DPK remain mired in a personal, shortsighted power struggle, they will not win the next parliamentary polls six months later. Suppose they fail to put the nation and the people ahead of their party, let alone its leader. In that case, the opposition cannot rectify the incumbent’s wayward conduct of state affairs.

That will not end up as the progressive party’s misfortune but rather that of the entire nation.

Source: Yonhap News Agency