More on last weekend's OOP meltdown

Yesterday, I posted about last Saturday's by-elections in which the Grand National Party (Hanaradang, GNP) took five of six legislative seats up for grabs.  This is a continuation of Our Open Party's (Yeollinuridang, Uri, OOP) slide since it won last spring's elections.

Now for the recriminations.  Predictably, the Hanky says that the OOP got spanked because it was not leftists enough:

In last year's National Assembly election Uri election the people wanted to see political and social reform, but despite the fact that Uri received a majority of seats and would have had the support of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) it failed to accomplish that. It actually turned back on reform legislation, giving in to offensives from the old establishment and pursuing a pragmatic line that engaged in self-censorship. This past weekend's election was a referendum on the reform that stopped at being nothing more than slogans.

Not surprisingly, fellow IKK member Oranckay is singing from the same sheet. 

Some OOP members are also calling for blood.  That may mean the end of the road for newly elected chairman Moon Hee-sang.  That would be a shame because I like Moon.  Just take a look at the guy (KTimes picture on the right).  He is chubby, balding and greasy; the perfect image of a old-time party boss. 

Alas, like their counterparts in the US, the OOP tends to eat its young.  I believe Moon was the third party chairman in the past year.  We might be looking at number four pretty soon.  I hope Moon holds on but stay tuned.

If he does go, the Hanky-Oranckay axis might get its wish of a more hard-core OOP (UPDATE:  I have since recanted the 'Hanky-Orankay axis' line See the comments section.).  Moon is a leader of President Roh's 'pragmatist' faction in the party (the Korean equivalent of 'DLC Democrats' to use a tortured comparison from America politics).  If he goes, the 'reformists' faction is likely to seize the leadership.

Although Moon always looks basted, he's not ready to have a fork stuck in him yet.  He already calling for a united front of Korea's left and center-left parties:

Moon, however, later claimed his party will consider and push for measures including a possible merger with other parties, to secure what he called a "safe" number of seats in the National Assembly.

"The option is always on the table not only for the Uri Party, but any political party. We could even consider an alliance with the Democratic Labor Party if certain conditions were met," he said in an afternoon forum organized by Kwanhun Club, an organization of South Korean journalists.

One big problem with that idea; the OOP and DLP despise each other.  The DLP remembers how then OOP leader Chung Dong-young  tried to undercut them last year. While they may be able to vote the same way on some issues, I don't see them cooperating in the long-term.  The DLP's long-term goal is to bump off the OOP as the leading party on the Korean left and take their place.

As for the OOP break-up watch, I'm still calling for sometime in mid or late 2006.

Comments

[oranckay]

"If he does go, the Hanky-Oranckay axis might get its wish of a more hard-core OOP."

??????????????????

And the Marmot is part of that "axis" for being against the NSL (and even more than I)? Is he leftist and like the Hani?

The "not suprisingly" part about me and the Hani is probably the worst insult I've been thrown in quite a while and is particularly dissapointing given the respect I long had for you.

While I can see how someone who is rash and does not understand English might think that I am taking the same position as the Hani, a closer reading would reveal that while the Hani thinks Uri lost because it did not pursue reform I do not ("here are a lot of reasons why Uri didn't do better, some of which Uri could have helped and some that it couldn't have,..") Furthermore I have never argued that being "constructive" means being "leftist."

Uri was not "not leftist" over the past year. It was amateurish and sloppy and indecisive. Anyone who didn't vote for Uri because it was "not leftist enough" wasn't voting for the GNP. I think the Hani is on drugs for thinking Uri lost because it didn't act on its reform program.

[oranckay]

" I think the Hani is on drugs for thinking Uri lost because it didn't act on its reform program. "

.... but yes, obviously I would've liked to see action on that. tis just not why they did so poorly.

[Andy (AKA: The Yangban)]

Oranckay,
I knew I'd get a rise out of you on that one.

I apologize for the 'Hanky-Oranckay axis' line. I just thought it was a nice turn of phrase and rather poetic (read it aloud three times fast and you might see what I mean).

In my defense, you did call for the OOP to stop trying to 'please' the GNP and cooperate more with the DLP. If that is not a prescription for a leftward lurch, I don't know what is.

The fact that someone could reliably predict where you would come down on an issue is not an insult, at least not in my book. I put myself in the same boat; I think that you could pretty easily guess where I will come down on most issues with a few exceptions (such as my opposition to the death penalty).

[oranckay]

How I come down on an issue is one thing, predictably being in line with the Hani is another given how the Hani makes me sick, at least for most of its editorials.

Even the GNP will say that Uri needs to cooperate with the DLP. That's just an obvious observation. It doesn't have any choice. It should be noted that Uri completely ignored the DLP during the past year and now if it wants to do anything it will have to work with them. That is a practical matter.

Uri wasn't "not being left enough" by being dragged around by the GNP, it was, like I say, being "amateurish and sloppy and indecisive."

Perhaps you can enlighten me as to what Uri wanted to do but didn't get done that is particularly leftist, keeping in mind that many in the GNP wanted some of the same reforms....

[Andy (AKA: The Yangban)]

I apologize for a second time for comparing you to the Hanky.

That the OOP needs to cooperate with the DLP is far from obvious. They have 146 seats, only four short of a majority. There are any number of ways that they could reach the magic number.

1. They could compromise with the GNP.
2. They could cooperate with the Chungcheong conservatives (the ULD and their new independent buddy.
3. They could try to live with the MDP.
or
4. They could work with the DLP.

All of those are practical and only option four would require a lurch to the left and that is the one optio that you and the Hanky advocated.

Yesterday's compromise on the truth commission is just one example of possible OOP-GNP cooperation. The problem with that plan is that such compromises piss off the left-wing of the party (the ones most likely to cooperate with the DLP). I find it interesting that 51 OOP members voted against the compromise because it will have the final report include the activities of leftist and/or communists. 58 of the 'pragmatist' voted for the compromise.

To want end do you want the OOP to work with the DLP?

[Gerry Bevers]

The reason?

I think after a couple of years with Roh and the Uri guys, Korean voters finally said to themselves, "What the hell were we thinking?"

[Kushibo]

Gerry Bevers wrote:
I think after a couple of years with Roh and the Uri guys, Korean voters finally said to themselves, "What the hell were we thinking?"

Since democratically elected presidents in Korea have always won with a plurality instead of a majority (about 3/5 voted for someone other than Roh), I think it's really a case of most Koreans saying (like we do), "What the hell were they thinking?"

But you're right: at least some of the 2/5 seems to have realized that their vote should be taken and given seriously.

[Guns and Butter]

"He is chubby, balding and greasy; the perfect image of a old-time party boss."

Well, politics is show business for ugly people. ROK is apparently no exception to this rule.