Lee Nak-yeon criticizes DP campaign committee

“Do you think people would go easy on us just because we make a deep bow? We need to recover people’s trust by maintaining a constant and consistent attitude.”

Lee Nak-yeon, chief of ruling Democratic Party presidential election campaign committee, hammered the party just two days from having started the official election campaign.

At a closed committee meeting on Wednesday, Lee reportedly said that he would talk about the harsh reality, and pointed out the current election campaign tactics the DP is using. Former Prime Minister Lee is canvassing for votes for Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, starting by attending the opening ceremony of the campaign committee of the Gwangju and South Jeolla branch, which took place at May 18 Democracy Square on Tuesday, when the official election campaign began.

“I’ve visited three campaign sites yesterday,” said Lee. “At one site, campaigners were making a deep bow to apologize, and at the other site, campaigners were doing dance routine. It seemed very bogus,” condemned Lee. “We need to show coherent attitude.”

“Under our tradition, deep bows are practiced indoors. Since when did we make a deep bow outdoors? Deep bowing would not make people suddenly supportive of us,” said Lee. “Would it be possible for any campaigner to say ‘no’ when a coordinator tells them to make a deep bow?” At the opening ceremony for the Gwangju and South Jeolla election campaign committee, all of the campaigners, including Lee, made a deep bow on the streets. “[Lee] pointed out that deep bows that campaigners repeat in every election season may appear as sham,” said one official at the ruling party.

Lee serves as a “disciplinarian” who tightens discipline of the Democratic Party since he took the mound as the chief of the election campaign committee. When an excessive protocol for Kim Hye-kyung, wife of Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, was subject to public controversy, Lee Nak-yeon first met with journalists and said it was important to honestly admit and humbly apologize, thereby triggering off Kim’s apology to the people for misuse of public servants.

Lee Nak-yeon demanded the ruling party’s officials to use less social media. At the committee’s first meeting on Feb. 9, he lambasted the party officials that they would rather stop using SNS than writing down useless words. He particularly mentioned postings that triggered public criticism, saying, “If you keep doing so, this will ruin our election.”


Ji-Hyun Kim jhk85@donga.com