hankyoreh

South Korean President Moon Jae-in waves to people gathered in front of the National Assembly after he was sworn into office on May 10, 2017. (Kim Tae-hyeong/The Hankyoreh)

It was a beautiful spring day on May 10, 2017, and the new president vowed to make South Korea a country worthy of its name in his inauguration speech. The people erupted in cheers. They had spent the winter in the public square holding candles and chanting slogans demanding former President Park Geun-hye be impeached.

Exactly four years passed, and the Hankyoreh asked 10 political experts to evaluate the government's record and solicited advice as to what course the government should take in its final year in office. In their overall appraisal, the experts agreed that the government had good intentions, but its record was lackluster. They recommended that it focus on ending the COVID-19 pandemic and alleviating economic inequality, as well as reducing social divisions.

Just as the expectations of the Moon government had been high, the criticisms were also acute.

Park Myeong-rim, a professor at Yonsei University, said, "You have to look back on the advantages the Moon government had to start with. President Moon has done some things well, but he often benefited from the absence of a strong opposition."

Lee Kwan-hu, a researcher at the Gyeongnam Institute, said, "The government veered off-course with its real estate policy in its initial stages, and it could not properly manage the dissonance between income-led growth and innovation-led growth."

"From the beginning, it failed to steer the country towards becoming a welfare state, and its policies in support of balanced growth were insufficient," he added. "Its good intentions were not translated into public policy."

Seo Bok-gyeong, a senior researcher at the Sogang Institute of Political Studies, said, "[The Moon administration] started in candlelight at the protests and it's going out with its response to COVID-19."

Kim Min-ha, a social commentator, levied a sharp criticism, saying, "The Moon regime's only remaining concern is not giving in to the prosecution."

Lee Jin-sun, chairwoman of the We All Govern Lab, said, "The rooting out of corruption is not a moral value important to our generation, but rather a tool. We became consumed with it and thus failed to realize other goals on the progressive agenda."

Park Myeong-rim went on to say, "The most regrettable thing that has happened over the past four years is that standards for differentiating between progressives and conservatives in Korea have disappeared."

"The 86 generation (the group born in the 1960s who came of age in the 1980s), the power base behind the Moon administration, is ideologically progressive, but their lifestyle is not, and in fact, they have reversed the gains of the progressive movement," he added. "For example, they call for society to become less polarized, but they have increased wealth inequality through a sharp rise in real estate prices."

"And even as they claim to support the environment, they exempt many engineering firms from having to do feasibility studies prior to land development."

The Moon administration has broken up the candlelight coalition through divisive party politics, which can be counted as another failure.

Yun Tae-gon, a political analyst at MOA, says that 80 percent of people, progressives and moderates alike, backed the candlelight protests and that the dissolution of the "candlelight coalition" has been a great loss.

Lee Jin-sun said, "Out of the framework of progressives and conservatives, labor and capital that was formed in 1987, we were not able to create a new, broader, more diverse progressive movement."

"We became mired in party politics. But the political system of 1987 is finished," she added.

Echoing this sentiment, Kim Su-min, a political commentator, said, "It is unfortunate we were not able to amend the constitution or reform the political system."

Jang Ha-na, an activist with the Political Mamas and a former Democratic lawmaker in the 19th National Assembly, said, "When non-permanent workers in the public sector were converting to permanent status, and it became an issue of 'fairness,' we should have broken through with a new vision."

With one year to go, the political experts emphasized the importance of both reviewing the past and opening dialogues.

Seo said, "In terms of conferring permanent status on non-permanent workers and enacting other economic reforms, we have to hold conversations to ask why these goals could not be reached."

"The government is headed in the right direction, but it should consult with academics and with citizens' groups to see what conditions are not being met and what goals should be revised," she added.

On a different note, Lee Jin-sun said the government needs to devise a long-term solution for the real estate issue.

"The people know that the real estate issue cannot be solved in a day. We need an open conversation in which the government acknowledges the difficulty of this issue," she said. "The government must persuade us to go in this direction over the long term, but it is infuriating to see members discussing things like an easing of the comprehensive real estate tax."

Many experts felt that in the next year, the government should focus on managing state affairs and healing the scars left by COVID-19.

Political commentator Yu Chang-seon said, "President Moon has not been able to exercise unified leadership over the past four years because he has been continuously embroiled in divisions. He should avoid situations that stoke conflict and concentrate on stable management of the country, for example, by ensuring COVID-19 vaccinations."

Lee Kwan-hu said, "If we achieve herd immunity by the end of this year, we can focus on revitalizing the economy. But in as much as our COVID-19 restrictions have succeeded, our political division has worsened, and this is the main problem that must be resolved."

Kim Min-ha said, "When the government first came to power, we were discussing income-led growth, but then the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, obliterating other concerns. Before we set ourselves goals like becoming a vaccine hub, we should exert ourselves to support the class of people who have been most hurt by the epidemic and address the problem of job instability."

Park Myeong-rim continued the conversation, saying, "In terms of using public health restrictions to manage COVID-19 and maintain the economy, the government has not failed, at least, going by international indicators."

"The number of confirmed cases and deaths here is better than that of countries with high vaccination rates," he noted. "If it does well in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, and restores the fundamental values of public welfare, safety, hygiene and environment, the people will assess it favorably."

Ahn Byung-jin, a professor at Kyung Hee University, said, "Double standards and unfair actions have caused the Moon Jae-in government to lose points. Going forward, this government should meet the high standards of the people and restore standards of fairness."

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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