Election Watch: A Race to the Bottom
Despite Roh’s and the Uri Party’s difficulties, the GNP will be unable to provide a viable policy alternative. Although the GNP’s surging approval ratings after the by-elections provided a strong boost to GNP chairwoman, Park Geun-hye, and her 2007 presidential candidacy, they reflect an electorate rebuff to Roh rather than a shift toward the GNP. . . . Park will likely overplay her hand, misinterpreting the elections as a vindication of her conservative policy and party stewardship.
A few months ago, the ruling Uri Party was splintering into mutually antagonistic factions. Now, the GNP takes its turn.
Succinctly stated, the GNP stands for nothing, meaning that the next election is taking shape as a choice between wrong ideas and no ideas at all. For this, the blame is entirely with the GNP’s leaders, beginning with Park Geun-Hye, daughter of the late military dictator General Park Chung-Hee. Most of the GNP’s troubles can be attributed to that fundamental flaw, although unfortunate timing didn’t help, either.
The most direct cause probably is the recent corruption scandals. The ruling party also owes Japan a debt of gratitude for giving it an excuse to resume Operation Tokdo Freedomâ“’ right where it left off at the last election season, to be conveniently stored away for just such an occasion.
I don’t dispute that it looks bad and is bad when politicians’ wives accept cake boxes full of cash from would-be candidates. I only note that politics as an industry is the natural result — a symptom — of politics in a vacuum of ideas.
Not everything dreary. First, Kim Moon-Soo, one of the few candidates in Korean politics who actually does stand for something worth supporting, is running well ahead of his opponent in Kyonggi province, the “swing state” of Korean politics.
Second, the GNP seems headed for a disappointing performance in local elections at the end of May, for which the turnout rightfully ought to be exceptionally low. Hopefully, that will set off GNP factionalism that will sap Park’s strength and harm her presidential hopes for 2007, hopes which deserve to be harmed because of Park’s authoritarian tendencies, her rudderless Sunshine Lite policy on North Korea, and finally, because she is a living symbol of a dictatorial past she has never convincingly repudiated. Better, it could splinter the GNP for good. We could only hope that one of those splinters would stand for the liberal values of free speech, free press, and free people in all of Korea.
The bad news about this? The main beneficiary will be Lee Myung-Bak, whose sole virtue is that he is less awful than the rest of them.
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