hankyoreh

chairman of the Democratic Party (DP)

The debate over whether the main opposition Democratic Party’s “New Democratic Party Plan” represents a move to the right has seemingly reached a conclusion.

The Democratic Party (DP) rounded its New Democratic Party Plan’s policy alternatives in seven sectors including education, jobs and small businesses with its announcement Sunday of policy alternatives in the environment and energy. This marks a year and five months since the launch of the New Democratic Party Vision Committee in October 2008, and 10 months since the “New Democratic Party Declaration” in May of last year that outlined the plan’s inclusive growth platform.

The DP gave an evaluation of its New Democratic Party Plan by saying that it has showed that “by presenting concrete policy alternatives on life politics issues closely tied to the lives of the common people, it could more clearly make itself the party of the working and middle classes.” There was little disagreement about this self-evaluation. It was quite a different scene from last May, when there was heated discussion within the party about whether the party was moving to the right in the wake of the New Democratic Party Declaration.

Following the final policy announcement, lawmakers critical at the time of the “rightward lurch,” such as Lee Jong-kul and Chun Jung-bae are saying that they can support most of the detailed policies that, in their opinion, deal in a balanced way with major pending social welfare issues.

In response, New Democratic Party Vision Committee Chairman Kim Hyo-seuk said during a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on Monday that there was some misunderstanding following the outline declaration calling for an end to the dichotomous view of growth and distribution, but party agreement had been reached through the announcement of concrete policies.

Other opposition parties including the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and the New Progressive Party (NPP) are welcoming the plan as a forward-thinking transformation. They praised the party’s push to sidestep a passive attitude to alleviate the irregular worker issue through the provision of subsidies to convert irregular workers to regular workers by instead calling for the adoption of a limit to reasons employers may hire irregular workers. They also praised its call for the adoption of a joint degree system for the national university system, which could become a starting point for eliminating academic cliques in which groups of individuals in positions of power give undue preference to their fellow alumni. New Progressive Party spokesman Kim Jong-chul said it is significant that the DP is making efforts to actively adopt policies that the progressive camp have been pushing.

The criticism, however, has not been completely silenced. The crux of the current criticism is that anyone can talk a good game. DP Lawmaker Chun Jung-bae said that compared with the favorable particulars presented as concrete policy alternatives, the DP has yet to present a broad framework vision for the party’s overall direction. Lawmaker Chung also said if there is no plan to eliminate South Korean society’s organized structure of vested rights, in which the chaebol, conservative media outlets and prosecutors are distorting national policy, the New Democratic Party Plan’s policies could end up as mere campaign slogans. Lawmaker Lee Jong-kul also said that the DP’s policy direction seems to emphasize growth, it would be difficult for the DP to differentiate itself from the ruling Grand National Party (GNP).

Other opposition party members are expressing suspicion that the policy alternatives presented by the Democratic Party are just empty slogans. Choi Gyu-yeop, head of the DLP’s New Community Institute, said he has witnessed changes in a party’s policy positions dependent upon whether it was a ruling or opposition party. Lawmaker Choi said the DP can earn trust when it shows sincerity in the “5 plus 4” talks currently underway with other opposition parties and civic organizations.

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