[Editorial] Those in Their 60’s and 70’s Don’t Have to Vote?

“It is no problem for those people in their 60’s and 70’s not to vote in the general elections this year,” Uri Party Chairman Chung Dong-young reportedly said in the press conference with the video recording team of the Kookmin Ilbo. This remark was reportedly made in response to the question asking him to address the young voters who are apathetic to politics, saying, “The future is the stage of the young generation.”

Chairman Chung clarified that it was intended to encourage the young in their 20’s and 30’s to vote, but Chung’s remarks are too hasty itself and can’t avoid harsh criticism as dangerous thinking to threaten the basics of democracy if he wants to restrict particular people’s exercising of sovereignty.

We are apprehensive for the general elections. Concerns are looming large that the general elections deteriorated into the vote on the impeachment, which there are no policies and no figures. And where can we find out the true meaning of the general elections if the generation rift is added?

Chairman Chung is raising the more essential question. He said that those in their 60’s and 70’s, who are about to make their exit from the stage don’t have to decide our future in advance. This reflects serious destitution of the historical consciousness. We would like to ask him whether he sees only the young generation participating in the candlelight vigil as a leading role. Today is an accumulation of the past, and the future will consist of the accumulations of today. If there were no accomplishments made by efforts with those in their 60’s and 70’s, how can today’s young generation exist?

If Chung’s remarks came from the arrogance resulting from the sharp increase in the approval ratings, he doesn’t know about how the public sentiment works at all. There will be no voter to support the party which is not modest and divides our people between yours and ours by their generation, followed by so called the “code.”