‘We Love Roh’ Club Losing Popularity

Nosamo, an online support group for fans of President Roh Moo-hyun, and its members still say that Roh Moo-hyun is the one man who can consolidate the nation’s solidarity. But disagreements between Nosamo members have been cropping up recently.

During the 2002 presidential election campaign, an endless stream of critical comments against conservative figures who seemed to play a negative role in Roh’s election success flowed onto the Nosamo bulletin board, and many regular writers participated in the online discussion.

But political debate on the site is rarer now. It has been replaced with discussions on other issues such as Professor Hwang Woo-suk’s fabrication scandal and stories of member get-togethers. The number of frequent writers has also shrunk to five or six, compared to 30 or 40 members three years ago.

Some say that the decline of Nosamo (which literally means, “people who love Roh”) is mainly due to the rising popularity of other Uri Party lawmaker support groups.

“Even if President Roh says something inconsistent with reality, it is very difficult to criticize Roh’s point of view because this may stigmatize one as a ‘spy of enemy,’ said Kim (46), a founding member of Nosamo. “Passionate and enthusiastic writing on the website bulletin board is getting rarer.”

But Jeong Me-ri (40), a founding member of Nosamo and an Uri Party administration office director, argues that “Nosamo’s decline is due to changes in its members’ political views.” She also said, “If President Roh gets into hot water or is entangled in conspiracy allegations again, 100,000 Nosamo members will take to the street shortly afterwards.”

Dong-Yong Min mindy@donga.com