[Opinion] Lee Hoi Chang`s Design

Public opinion on President Kim Dae Jung`s (DJ) resignation as president of the Millenium Democratic Party (MDP) is, for the most part, positive but there is also a significant portion who think otherwise. Those who regard the decision in a negative light fall into two broad categories. First, there are those who doubt that a masterly skilled politician such as DJ would have stepped down as party president without any back-up plan. There must be, they feel, another plan in the making and that it is too early to tell what will happen. The Grand National party side cannot forego the suspicion that the ruling party will form a `non-DJ – anti-Lee Hoi Chang party` and try to reshape the political landscape. Second, there are those who feel that the President stepping down from the office of party president within a system where the executive and the ruling party are mutually interrelated is to disregard his political responsibilities.

Whether or not there is some secret plan in the works, only time will tell, and the criticism that DJ is irresponsible is justified in principle. It is, however, difficult to tell whether the President`s keeping the party post would enable him to carry out responsible politics.

In a political configuration where the ruling party is the minority and the opposition party the majority, a harmonious union of opposites easily becomes a mere figure of speech. The GNP and its president Lee Hoi Chang with their `anti-DJ sentiment` cannot but put a definite limit to their relation with the President. If they transgress this limit, they will clearly lose the `anti-DJ votes` and this is tantamount to giving up their principal objective. The ruling party, therefore, sees the opposition chasing them down. The reason why both parties have held several meetings between party leadership and promised cooperative politics, yet have repeatedly turned their backs on the promise is because there is a deep underlying distrust between them.

Regional loyalties and partisan politics that stop societal cohesion and qualitative changes from taking place constitute the most urgent obstacles to be overcome in Korean society. Yet it is hard to deny that regional loyalties and partisan politics also constitute the most powerful ideology in present Korean society. Although they refuse to take all the blame, the exacerbation and intensification of regionalist politics since the beginning of the this administration is in fact the consequence of the Kim Dae Jung administration`s error. That is the reality.

The President cannot remain as the party president and run the government properly under these circumstances and in the midst of continued conflict with the opposition party. Furthermore, in a patriarchal political culture like Korea, the abuses that happen when the President simultaneously takes on the office of the ruling party president cannot but destroy responsible politics. In his acceptance speech at the national presidential candidate nomination meeting on May 19, 1997, President Kim Dae Jung said, "In order to elevate the freedom of the party and the autonomy of the National Assembly, I will resign as party president if I am elected as President." But the promise was not kept and the party became subordinate to the Cheong Wa Dae. As the party lost its autonomy and the representatives turned into yes-men, just and fair politics became an impossibility. The backwardness of Korean politics begins there. President Kim kept his promise at too late a point in time.

MDP representative Chung Kyun Hwan said, "President Kim`s resignation as the president of the MDP signifies the end of the Three-Kims Era." The issue now is how the ruling and the opposition parties will forge a `politics after the Three Kims.` The `Three-Kims Politics` was a one-man politics based on regional loyalties. This kind of politics must now be abolished. In order to do so, the political parties must be democratized and the National Assembly must become the center of the political system. The fundamental political paradigm must change.

Yet it is difficult to know whether this can actually happen. Although the MDP is talking about forming a `second political party,` those who are preparing to run for the presidential nomination appear to be completely preoccupied with strengthening their own base. The GNP is acting like it has already secured the seat of power. Of course, Mr. Lee Hoi Chang has a clear advantage over any ruling party candidate and polls that report that the GNP has double the amount of support that the MDP has justifies their attitude. If, however, much of this mass support comes from `anti-DJ` sentiments, this is definitely not the time for optimism. Don`t they say that 60 percent of the voting population do not support any party in particular?

Representative Kim Yong-Hwan who recently entered the GNP and took over as chair for the Committee on National Reform stated, "Without changes on the level of national reform, change in administration will have not meaning." Mr. Lee Hoi Chang will have to provide officially his plans for making this a reality. This is not the time to worry over one`s image.

youngji@donga.com