hankyoreh

By Seong Han-yong, political correspondent

At a speech meeting in Seoul on Sept. 16, Moon gave a speech in which he said he “never dreamed of becoming President.”

“Becoming President was never my goal,” he said. “What the public wants now is change. They don’t just want a different administration; they want politics itself to change. They want the world to change. I feel a sense of calling, a sense that those calls for change have been choosing me.”

His argument then was similar to Ahn’s in saying the presidency was not a goal in itself, describing the sense of being summoned by popular demands for change, and using the word “calling.” In Moon’s own analysis, it was a combination of freshness and sincerity that helped him to defy all predictions early in the primary process and secure first place by a commanding margin.

What kind of election strategy can we expect from Moon? In particular, it remains to be seen how Moon plans to reach the next stage: passing Ahn in popularity and consolidating the unified opposition presidential candidacy.

The Hankyoreh put the question to Moon’s election advisers - lawmakers Noh Young-min, Yoon Hu-duk, Jeon Hae-cheol, and Yun Kwan-seok - at the scene of his primary victory. For the most part, they saw Moon as facing two major hurdles.

The first of them was harmony and reform within the party. The DUP primary may have ended with a resounding win for Moon, but it was marred by complaints from candidates Sohn and Kim and unruly behavior by representatives. The format, an open primary, also wounded the pride of longstanding party members. Some members of the public view chairman Lee Hae-chan, floor leader Park Jie-won, and Moon as part of a Roh wing domination.

All of these concerns mean that healing divisions and allaying concerns are matters of first priority. Noh, who heads the election committee headquarters, said it was of paramount importance for Moon to meet with Sohn, Kim, and Jeong to project a sense of unity in the ranks.

Another question is how to go about building the kind of “melting pot election committee” Moon himself predicted. The committee is expected to be large and draw in a wide range of figures from inside and outside the party.

But there is little hope of successfully reforming the DUP if the emphasis is solely on harmony. Sources report that Moon is very keen on DUP reform. As it happens, the DUP held a supreme council meeting on Sept. 15 where its members agreed to entrust all of its authority to the candidate. A number of current and former lawmakers - including Noh, as well as Woo Yoon-keun, Rhee Mok-hee, Shin Geh-ryoon, Park Young-sun, and Kim Boo-kyum - are being mentioned as possible candidates to head the planning team and sketch out the general picture for the election. Kim Boo-kyun is being viewed as a particularly likely contender.

The next hurdle is the decision on a final opposition candidate. Compared to Park Geun-hye, Moon has a weak political base. Most of the voters in their twenties and thirties, the New Frontier Party opponents, and the non-DUP segments are in Ahn‘s column. If Moon has any hope of beating Ahn, he needs to be able to give opposition supporters a clearly articulated message as to why he wants to be president and what he will do once elected.

Moon’s first stop on Sept. 17 after a morning visit to the National Cemetery is the Guro Digital Complex in Seoul, where he plans to share ideas on how to increase jobs for young people. With this, his first act as a presidential candidate is focused squarely on the theme of job creation. Analysts read this as the beginning of a friendly battle with Ahn on “messages to the public.”

DUP members were confident in their candidate‘s chances, noting that Ahn’s support has waned as Moon’s has waxed. The most likely scenario is that the final scoring for their competition will come in the form of opinion poll figures.

Moon’s advisers all agreed that the matter of reaching an agreement on a final opposition candidate would best be left up to him.

Fundamentally, the two men trust one another, and the party and supporters will have to respect whatever decisions they make in the election process.

A lawmaker in Moon’s election camp noted a controversy in the DUP after Moon prematurely raised the possibility of a coalition government. “I think he’s weighing his message carefully now to maintain consistency,” the lawmaker said.

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