Posted April. 17, 2013 05:24,
The main opposition Democratic United Party is considering shifting from left to right its principle and policy platform, which symbolize the ideological orientation of a political party at its national convention on May 4. The party, which suffered successive defeats at last years general elections and presidential election, is taking the move in a bid to embrace change amid a sense of crisis that We cannot afford to continue business as usual. With varying opinions abound within the party, however, it remains to be seen whether it will be able to make such transformation.
In December 2011, the Democratic Party changed its name to the Democratic United Party by merging with the Citizens United Party and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, and shifted its ideological orientation to the left, by deleting centralism from its party platform. The party took the measure to form alliance of the opposition camp with the progressive and leftist forces ahead of the general and presidential elections in 2012. It committed an act of self-contradiction by choosing to pursue "renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement," effectively reversing the policy that had been initiated and implemented by the liberal Roh Moo-hyun administration. The party overly emphasized welfare policy of equable sharing and economic democratization, while shunning economic growth. It also gave the public the impression that it is negligent of national security. In addition, it failed to embrace broad spectrum of the public by excessively dividing its supporters and opponents through, among others, a ban on its members appearance on general programing cable TV channels, which tend to be conservative in nature.
Such shift of political orientation brought about dominance in party leadership of the pro-Roh (Moo-hyun) faction, including the election of former Prime Ministers Han Myung-sook and Lee Hae-chan, and nomination of Moon Jae-in as presidential candidate. The pro-Roh leadership focused on measures of political engineering such as coalition of the opposition camp and unifying of opposition candidates, rather than humbly approaching the public through party reform. Most analysts say that after all, the partys defeat in both general elections and presidential election stems from peoples shunning the party due to its failure in party reform and giving up of centralistic ideology. This largely complies with the partys own analysis of the reason that it failed in both elections.
If the Democratic (United) Party seeks to become an alternative political party that seeks to regain power, it should not be overly biased and stubborn in political orientation and platform. In this light, the partys bid to change its principle and party platform to strengthen the centralistic ideology in economy, welfare and North Korea policy, is a step in the right direction. It must display its commitment through acts in real politics, rather than through nominal declaration or rhetoric.
Changing the partys name anew is somewhat out of focus, however. Since the 2000s, it has changed its name seven times, including the National Coalition for New Politics, the Millennium Democratic Party, the Uri Party, the New Democratic Party of Grand Coalition, the United Democratic Party, the Democratic Party, and the Democratic United Party. It has been only 17 months since it last changed its name to the Democratic United Party. Changing the partys name too often could give the public the impression of a makeshift home. Given that it could be referred to the Democratic Party in abbreviated form, it is doubtful whether changing the name to the Democratic Party anew will bring about practical benefits.