Former Prime Minister Goh Kun, a leading presidential hopeful, yesterday unveiled his plan to establish a new political party by recruiting lawmakers from the governing and opposition parties.
Goh has been trying to get the Democratic Party on board for a while. Now, he is openly recruiting members of the Uri Party:
“Those who share similar political views will meet and cooperate in a completely new political group,’’ Goh, 68, said before attending a seminar in Chongju, North Chungchong Province.
“I’ve talked to many incumbent lawmakers and most of them have agreed on the need to set up a new party to resolve many of the nation’s challenging tasks,’’ he added.
Goh said he is willing to join hands with any politician, who is neither excessively progressive nor conservative, in the new party, disclosing his intention to target mostly lawmakers from the governing Uri Party and the minor opposition Democratic Party (DP).
This is Goh’s Plan B. Plan A was to be a fusion candidate with the Democrats and the Chungcheong-based People First Party (PFP). That plan went up in smoke when the PFP did poorer that expected in local elections last spring.
Goh might have wanted to wait a little longer until Uri broke up, but his deteriorating popularity meant that he needed to start actively working for support. Two recent polls have him trailing the Grand National Party’s (GNP) Lee Myung-bak by around 20% (and Park Geun-hye by about 5%), this despite Lee’s completely insane GREAT CANAL OF KOREA plan.
Goh needs both the Democrats and most of Uri on his side if he is to have any chance of winning. For Goh to beat the GNP candidate next year, he needs to get Saddam Hussein-like numbers in the Honam region (Jeolla and Gwangju). So unifying both groups under his banner is a must.
My best guess at this point would be that Goh will pick up whichever faction loses the upcoming Uri power struggle.* From there, he will have to woo the rest of the party. It is also possible that Uri backbenchers will start defecting sooner than that in the hope of getting a leadership position in the new political order.
In any case, if he can’t do all that by early in the summer of 2007, progressives will probably start looking elsewhere for a dream candidate, especially if he cannot boost his poll numbers.
The clock is ticking.
(*Sooner or later, someone in the Uri leadership is going to have to take Goh on or watch their power dissolve as Goh packs the his party’s leadership with his closest followers.)
7 Comments
Mr. Goh is limiting his votes by recruiting lawmakers from the DP and Uri Dang. I wonder what kind of card he has for Kyungsang region.
Thanks for the updates Mr. Jackson. Too bad Goh has to pick up any support from the Uri Party, although I guess some (a lot?) of the backbenchers you mentioned are a little less “progressive” than the leadership. Anyway, he does have to build a party from what’s around.
Goh is setting himself up as the opposition candidate to Lee or Park, so it is natural for him to work on the Jeolla-based parties.
The Gyeongsang area tends to split its votes more, so Goh could make inroads there if he can solidify his base enough to not have to mess with it.
Of course, Sudogwon (I just learned that word) is the real prize.
LOL from the KT: “Political analysts said Goh’s extremely prudent and cautious attitude has disappointed people while Lee’s decisive image, including his recent announcement of a four-year plan to construct a giant cross-country canal, contributed to the former mayor’s surging popularity.”
Bballi-bballi and pipe dreams best prudence and caution in Korea once again.
Goh is a bureaucratic paper pusher, nothing more. I predict that he will get bashed around by political fighting and walk away with next to nothing.
True! And the region did not show 99% vote for only one candidate / party like Jeolla region. It is clear that the region strongly believes that DJ and Roh striped the region for almost 10 years and ultimately want to take back its vested interests. Other regions, except Jeolla, are also tired of idealistic Roh and Uri Dang. That’s why Goh side is limiting himself by announcing his interests to take law makers from Uri Dang. Goh could only make it thru with an advantage of fights within GNP players.
Yankee Goh home.
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[...] Remember when I said this last week (I know all of y’all eat up everything that comes off my keyboard): Sooner or later, someone in the Uri leadership is going to have to take Goh on or watch their power dissolve as Goh packs the his party’s leadership with his closest followers. [...]