I came across an interesting editorial in the Joongang Ilbo this morning by Kim Du-woo. It's main topic was the current crisis in Our Open Party's (OOP) leadership following several recent setbacks:
The Uri Party has suddenly be-come quiet. The controversy over the confidants of the president, the reverse discrimination against Honam natives, the talk of the merger with the Millennium Democratic Party and the discussion of political restructuring centering around former Prime Minister Koh Gun have all disappeared. This was not a result of a serious discussion.
On June 12, former and incumbent party presidents, floor leaders and the central standing committee members agreed at a banquet to give a priority to the harmony and unity of the party, and all the discords and trouble evaporated. So neither the party insiders nor the citizens believe that the problems of the governing party have been solved. The media called it a "suture" in concert....
Why did they hurriedly stitch up the wound? "To fulfill the responsibilities as a governing party" is only a nominal justification. A more frank answer is that they do not have the courage to face the cause of the ailment. They are afraid that the party might break apart. They complain they do not enjoy the advantages of past dominant parties because of the separation between the party and the administration but still fear losing this favored position. The so-called reformists are not brave enough to openly proclaim a progressive party, while the so-called pragmatists lack both the confidence and the will to lead. So they ended the trouble with a make-shift solution of a suture.
We all knew when it first started that the OOP was an unsteady grouping of leftists, moderates and good ol' fashioned political opportunists (although, to be far, there are always a fair number of the later in many parties around the world). Without a central ideology for the party to rally around there are naturally fissures in the party. Their defeat in by-elections this Spring has plainly put some pressure on those fissures and party leaders have scrambled to keep Humpty-Dumpty from falling off the wall.
Soon after the 2004 legislative elections, I had suspected that the party leadership would try to overcome these natural cleavages in the party by becoming a non-ideological patronage party like Japan's Liberal Democrats but they clearly haven't been able to pull it off.
I disagree with Kim about the dangers of an OOP break-up in the short term. With the next round of full legislative elections not due until 2008, none of the parties factions would benefit from a split right now. I'm still predicting the break-up for mid-to-late 2006 as the factions position themselves for the 2007 presidential elections.
Back to Kim's piece:
The alleged bolting and alienation of Honam-based lawmakers and the rumor of a merger with the Millennium Democratic Party made the Uri Party even more pathetic. The basis of the alleged alienation is that only two of the Blue House secretaries are from the Honam region. However, Honam natives make up the majority of the governing party lawmakers. The merger, too, lacks justification. If they hope for a merger because of their total defeat in the April 30 by-election, and they calculated that it would be hard to win next year's local elections without the support of the Honam region, they are practically announcing a return to the regional structure of the past. When they separated from the Millennium Democratic Party and established the Uri Party, their justifications were political reform and the breaking up of regional confrontation. If the Uri Party flirts with the Millennium Democrats saying they now share their political tendencies, it would be a denial of the foundation of their existence. They should learn to wait until they have a clear justification, and the citizens are convinced.
(FYI: Honam consists of the south-west part of Korea, including the Jeolla provinces and Gwangju.)
The OOP is having Honam problems? That is certainly news to me, although it shouldn't have been since the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) had been enjoying some success in their mutual home turf lately.
Here I think Kim may be holding the OOP to too high of a standard. The OOP actually did little to reduce regionalism in the 2004 elections and they need Honam to have any hope of repeating their success. After the latest by-elections the Chungcheong provinces (which they had been counting on) are looking a little shaky. Also, with the Grand National Party's self-induced electoral crisis behind them, they have been coming out of their eastern base and will compete more effectively in the Seoul-Gyeonggi area. So, if the OOP can't do something about the MDP, their goose will be cooked in the next cycle.
That's just politics.
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