About the new name of the main opposition party

For me, the definition of brilliance is to make something grow on you later despite its first awkward impression. When Shin Yeong-bok published his book “Together with the Woods” in 1998, the title struck me as brilliant. Despite its grammatical errors in the Korean language, the title provoked an uncanny sense of tensions. After Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo`s recently defection from the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, the party has decided to change its name as “Together with Democracy.” Just like the title of the book, the new title of the party struck me as a bold attempt.

Son Hye-won, the party`s chief of the public relations, said that she was impressed by the name of the “Democracy and the Pine Tree Party,” another candidate for the title of the party. Personally, I find the name of the party unnecessarily maudlin. The simple name of “Democratic Party” would have sufficed, which would have not been available as it has already been used. The party`s new title, Together with Democracy or the Deobureao Minjudang in the Korean language, may well sound shallow when abbreviated as any word would be in social media, since the shorter version of “Deo Minjudang” may sound like “The” Democratic Party in the Korean phonetics instead of its intended meaning of promoting democracy.

Umberto Eco, the renowned Italian author of the "Name of the Rose," initially planned to name his book “The Death of the Monastery.” It will baffle any reader why the author gave his book such a name. At the end of the book, the author left a poet in Latin: “The rose of the past is only its name. What remains is just the vanity of the name.” The same would be said to the opposition parties in Korea: what remains is the vanity of the names of the successive opposition parties only: New Democratic Party - New Korea Democratic Party – Unified Democratic Party – Peace and Democracy Party – New Millennium’s Party of Democracy – New Politics People’s Congress - Democratic Party – Democratic Unified Party – Democratic Party – New Politics Alliance for Democracy.

Confucius said that the right name leads to the right way. This should have to serve as a food for thought. Aung San Su Kyi, who led the revolutionary general elections in Myanmar this year, said, “A rose by any other name will still smell as sweet.” For those blindly pursuing advancing their political ends in elections, I would like to say, “You cannot make any flower smell as sweet as the rose just by giving it the same name.”

pisong@donga.com