hankyoreh

By Lee Ji-en, Staff Writer　

Compared to his haggard appearance right after the April 27 by-elections, his face seemed to have recovered some vigor behind the black horn-rimmed glasses.

“Actually, I have been holed up at home. Most of my schedule was canceled, so...” After about a month and a half of silence attributed to “reflecting and searching” in the wake of his Gimhae-B defeat, People’s Participation Party (PPP) Chairman Rhyu Si-min met the Hankyoreh for an interview Thursday at the party offices in Seoul’s Mapo District.

On the issue of progressive political parties and their unification, which has drawn much attention lately, Rhyu said, “The people have expressed their intent to give national power if the opposition gathers its forces, and they are moving toward the demand that whatever new progressive party forms join forces with the Democratic Party to take power.”

But Rhyu also made it clear that he plans to abandon the current method of alliance with the Democratic Party (DP) and pursue unification with the progressive party. “I think [a cooperative alliance with the DP] is an extremely tall order,” he said. “I cannot repeat something that does not realistically work.”

Rhyu Si-min: “I think it resulted from the fact that voters approved of the PPP’s political actions in pursuing opposition solidarity, but did not readily accept the party’s presence. I think we were on the receiving end of the judgment that it was not yet the time in all aspects of the party’s ideas, policies, personalities, strategy, and so forth. We have come to understood where the party is right now through various elections, not just the Gimhae-B one.”

R: “I think the PPP was an inconvenience to the DP as the main opposition party. I thought that opposition solidarity might turn out to be a cooperative game. . . . The conditions were not right for that, including a lack of political ability on the part of the party chairman. I also think [a cooperative alliance with the Democratic Party] will be an extremely tall order going ahead. I am worried about that. And it is a very serious time and situation with the approach of the general and presidential elections.”

R: “The reality we are given is that of an open trade nation. If we face this fact squarely in dealing with the issue, there really is not any need for the positions to be divided in a hostile way. The normal approach is to then make a determination about changes. When people are telling you to state that you have changed position on a certain policy from ‘A’ to ‘B,’ like you are a religious convert, you need to think about that in terms of freedom of conscience. I was a Cabinet member during the Roh Moo-hyun administration’s negotiations. If you ignore that completely and tell me to state my position as Rhyu Si-min the individual, I cannot really say anything, can I?”

R: “To date, progressive parties have been saying, ‘Let’s change this fifty-year-old roasting grill.’ But people do not tend the meat just because you have changed the grill. Only when the people bringing the new grill have experience cooking meat and seem like they would do a good job are people going to say, ‘Try cooking something on that new grill you have brought.’ We need progressive political forces that South Koreans can recognize and say, ‘That’s pretty good,’ ‘You can trust them,’ ‘They look competent,’ ‘We can let them handle the big things.’

R: The people have expressed their intent to give national power if the opposition gathers its forces. If a new progressive party is created, it is not entirely impossible for it to gain power right away, but if you examine current popular sentiment, they are telling us to join forces. This also goes for the Democratic Party.

R: Is there a single person in the Republic of Korea who fancies the idea of national power being handed down according to genes? But it is a low blow to tell people to state openly that they like it or hate it. You cannot ask questions of other political groups that force emotional humiliation on them.

R: The university students took too long in standing up for themselves. Even now, it is too small-scale. If students show a more powerful determination as South Korean voters, the answer will emerge.

R: We have arrived at a point where a very bold solution is required. We first need to eliminate temporary positions in the non-profit public sector and enact legislation to prevent things like illegal dispatch services. I was critical of labor flexibility policy during the Roh administration, and I think that was not so much because of ideological leanings as because of a lack of capability.

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