hankyoreh

Jan. 13. (by Kim Kyung-ho

At a press conference on Jan. 13, Democratic Party leader Kim Han-gil promised that the party would set aside old ways of thinking and acting and start political reforms, even if it means remaking the party from scratch. Asked about the relationship with independent lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo, Kim said, “As we compete with Ahn in political innovation, we will decide according to the will of the people in our decision about whether it is necessary to restructure the political opposition.” On the issue of a human rights law for North Korea, the party head announced that the Democratic Party would draft a law for North Korean human rights and livelihood.

While Kim said at the press conference that he would reform the party even if it meant remaking it from scratch, he did not show nearly enough of the resolution he would need to accomplish this. Kim proposed measures such as overcoming factionalism, banning slander and inappropriate language, running the party in emergency mode, and making nominations in a transparent, bottom-up manner, but none of these are extraordinary measures.

In its current state, the Democratic Party, South Korea’s main opposition party, is truly pathetic. Despite being a sprawling party with 127 seats in the National Assembly, the Democratic Party has been left in the dust by the Saenuri Party (NFP) in terms of approval rating and is even surrendering second place to the new political group led by Ahn Cheol-soo. If elections were held right now, it is not even clear that the Democratic Party could maintain its claim to being the main opposition party.

Dire situations call for desperate measures, as well as more determination than we saw at the press conference. The Democratic Party will find it difficult to emerge out of the crisis it currently finds itself in through vague and theoretical methods such as overcoming factionalism or banning inappropriate language. If the party is to beat the factions, Kim must start by laying out a specific plan to show how he plans to stop engaging in factional behavior himself. He must show determination inside and outside the party, reshuffling the party leadership and appointing new ones to bring unity. Putting the party on emergency footing sounds good in theory, but what Kim really meant, it appears, is reorganizing and expanding the planning team for regional elections. In an emergency situation like this, even creating a party-wide reform body that would bring all of the groups inside the Democratic Party together to talk would not be enough.

Even if Democratic Party members change everything except their wives and kids (as Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee once said), rebuilding the party from the ground up, there is no guarantee that they will win back the hearts of the people. The complacent attitude and countermeasures offered by Kim at the New Year’s press conference are likely not enough to rescue the party from its current plight, where it hangs in limbo, torn by factional strife. With reform as tepid as this, it would not even be easy to compete with Ahn Cheol-soo or to rebuild the political opposition. Kim and the Democratic Party will need to make some painful sacrifices in order to bring about reform.

Kim also said that he would take a forward-looking approach to the issue of North Korean human rights. The issue of human rights in North Korea is a complicated one that involves both the woeful level of human rights awareness - as evidenced by the [recent] execution of Jang Song-thaek - and also ordinary North Koreans’ struggle for mere survival. Consequently, addressing the issue of North Korean human rights must involve supporting the people of North Korea. We hope that the Democratic Party’s new bill will serve as a basis for both ruling and opposition parties to determine what approach will be truly helpful for advancing the cause of human rights for the people of North Korea.

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