hankyoreh

The Democratic Party is in a quagmire as it faces increasing challenges to its existence as the main opposition party. Some DP insiders say the party is becoming powerless to deal with the growing number of issues confronting the nation.

When the new National Assembly opened on July 10, the DP pledged to raise issues related to the government’s mismanagement of state affairs, including the government’s handling of the resumption of U.S. beef imports. Instead, however, the party is increasingly being confronted with its own lack of power. In a legislative session last week, some DP lawmakers attempted to raise management issues, but failed to deal with the responses of the Cabinet ministers present, including Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, who answered questions arrogantly.

DP spokesman Cho Jeong-shik said, “DP lawmakers seemed to have failed to pursue the current issues at hand because they tried to deal with too many issues within a limited period of time.”

But a two-term DP lawmaker with a constituency in the Seoul metropolitan area said, “The DP are still acting like a ruling party, which has weakened their claws” as an opposition party.

It is difficult to hear the voices of the DP in any one of six special parliamentary committees, including one charged with handling a parliamentary investigation into the beef issue. Instead, DP lawmakers on the beef committee frequently complain that the Geumgang and Dokdo issues are “swallowing” the beef issue.

Meanwhile, the DP’s handling of issues related to press freedom seems belated. The DP, which had originally agreed with the ruling Grand National Party to exclude media matters as the two parties were negotiating the details of the National Assembly opening, said it would come up with countermeasures and expand an intra-party organization on media issues only after the shareholders of all-news cable TV channel YTN pushed through a bill to endorse Gu Bon-hong, a close confidante of President Lee, as their new chief executive officer.

DP Rep. Choi Moon-soon, who was a member of the party’s organization on media issues and is a former president of MBC, said, “There is no do-or-die will in dealing with press freedoms, which is also a matter of democracy. I don’t know whether there is a lack of genuine sentiment or no confidence.”

In addition to the DP’s growing lack of power, there is a limit to the number of parliamentary seats it is able to control - currently 81. Immediately after the new National Assembly opened, the DP tried to submit a bill to dismiss Finance Minister Kang Man-soo, but the attempt failed due to a lack of votes after the conservative opposition Liberty Forward Party came out in opposition to the move. The DP has also been trying to impeach Choi Si-jung, the chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, but the move is unlikely to be successful without the cooperation of the LFP. “It’s true that we have felt a sense of powerlessness because there aren’t many things we can do with 81 seats,” said a high-ranking DP official.

However, some DP insiders have accused the party leadership of having “no strategy or will, rather than being disadvantaged by the numbers.” A first-term DP lawmaker said, “The leadership’s ability to deal with emergency situations is problematic. There is no movement toward creating a strong opposition party. Rather than putting the blame on the lawmakers’ political leanings, the leadership should be strategic about where it’s placing its lawmakers.”

There are growing concerns that the DP may be set adrift if it fails to rebuild the momentum it needs to do battle with the ruling party.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]