There are a couple of interesting political pieces out I want to share.
The first is from the Hankyoreh (yes, I read the Hanky) on Roh lost the support of his base. Many of the ‘386 generation’ have turned against him. The final straw seems to be his failed real estate policies, which have caused problems for many people in the capital area:
The current real estate crisis has placed the Roh administration in a “vegetative state.” No one believes what the government says, and no one believes that it can realize its policies. As a result, the country’s liberals and reformists on a whole are for many the very picture of inability.
The skepticism has especially spilled over into the so-called 386 generation, who faced off with South Korea’s dictatorships as college students in the 1980s. This generation comprised a core group of Roh supporters at election time.
As a conservative I hate to say this, but Roh should have stuck to his guns instead of playing around trying to be a ‘pragmatic reformer.’ Instead of trying to get the GNP to join in some kind of coalition government, he should have been slamming them mercilessly from the beginning of his administration. If he would have done that he would still be unpopular, but he would have about 35% support, which would at least give him more political capital than he has from the 11-16% support recent polls give him.
Despite the damage Roh’s presidency a third of Korean voters are still progressive and would be willing to support someone whom they believe stands for their values.
This brings up the next mistake. Now that Goh Kun has been forced by events to start campaigning publicly for the presidency, he has come out and declared himself to be a ‘center-right’ candidate (Korea Herald):
“The best kind of governance is one that places the highest priority on national interests. As a center-right reformist, that is exactly the type of leadership I plan to pursue,” Goh, 68, told university students Monday.
From a policy standpoint, Goh is probably correct. Center-right (moderate conservative) is probably the ideal orientation for the president of a republic to have, IMHO.
However, in Goh’s position, I do not think it is politically practical. Goh is trying to position himself as the only realistic alternative to the Grand National Party nominee (most likely Lee Myung-bak or Park Geun-hye). His hope is that moderates will stick with him because of his moderate positions and that progressives will stay with him because he is the only one who can keep the GNP out of the Blue House.
But, by publicly saying that he is on the “center-right,” Goh has opened up his left flank and increased the chances that the left will decide that having him in the Blue House is not much better than having one of the GNPers there. The Democratic Labor party will have their nominee and I strongly suspect that at least one other major player on the left will throw his hat in the ring.
Goh’s only hope now is for the GNP to split like in 1997.
14 Comments
well, korean goverment is 100 percent bad. they do not know how dirty their country is. they do not know how bad their country`s image is in the world. they do not know what traffic signals are used for.
a message to the korean goverment,
put the garbage in the garbage can. your country is dirty.
no need to be brainwashed to hate, please brainwash your people to put the garbage in the garbage can. dirty korea.
This is where someone with my understanding of Korean history and politics is needed. The following is what will happen.
1) Park Gunhey: Foggedabouther! She is THE daughter of the dictator who changed Korean constitution to declare martial law and to elect himself for third presidency. Too much skeletons in the closet. She will be put into the position where she has to say “I think my father did the right thing to change Korean constitution” or “my father was a evil man sometimes”. Neither position will elect her to be a president. She cannot win.
2) Lee Myungbak: I really wish him to be the next president. Yet, I have this eery feeling that Kim DaeJung and Rho Muheyn (the evil duo) have something in their sleeves. They may have something that can shoot Mr. Lee down. Something about money and bribes. Lee is just too wealthy; he must have done something in the sixties while working at Hyundai corporation. Or, while he was the mayor of Seoul.
3) Goguhn: He will join the evil duo’s party, be it Uri(if it survives) or a new party of the pro-north Commie. He will be the head of pro-North Commie, while projecting himself to be in the middle. He will get 99% of Jolla Commie vote and considerable votes from moderates of other parts of Korea. He will win. He will be the next president of Korea and he will continue pro-North Commie agenda. No? He is from Jolla province.
Yes, treesjess, you’ve been banned.
“Yes, treesjess, you’ve been banned.”
…and the crowd said ‘yeah!’
Baduk, I doubt Park Geun Hee will put on the spot with questions of her dad. Don’t forget that she’s where she is in politics in part because of who her dad was. Park Jung Hee, after all, is still quite popular, inspite of the fact he was a dictator. If a reporter brings the question up, she’ll simply answer with an appeal to nationalism, something along the line of, ” Those were difficult times for our nation and my father did what he thought was necessary to develop South Korea into the powerful country that it is now.”
I may have been brainwashed by my feminist university professor of a mom, but I think it’s time a woman runs this country because the men have been messing it up pretty bad. Besides, the election of a woman as president of South Korea would certainly be a momentous occasion.
Goh Kun doesn’t strike me as a raving Marxist, even if he is from Jollanamdo, but some of the rats jumping off the sinking Uri Party ship into his party might be problematic by making his party base too lefty for some and not enogh for others. The bigger problem is that Koreans don’t seem to go for “moderates,” so Goh might not generate enough momentum against demagogues like Park and Lee, and whoever the left throws up.
He shall win by a landslide with one simple slogan: Yankee Goh Home!
I think the three(-ish) major parties will all realign in the coming months, rending most speculation about the presidential elections moot… And then all the same people will run anyway, albeit in parties with slightly different names and with slightly different conglomerations of supporters, rending all moot speculation un-moot.
Actually, if the Democratic Party and Uri realign, we could at last actually see Jeolla-do voting for a choice of parties, instead of rallying 90% around one candidate, as usual. Which would be a good thing, imho.
What if Uri nominates PM Han Myeong-sook as a presidential candidate?
She has gained in ever-growing popularity despite her ideological backgrounds. She would get more votes than any other names on the surface.
Get it through your heads. Goguhn is the next Korean president. The evil duo put their stamps on this man.
He will continue “sunshine policy”(grovel to KJI) and send billions to NK so that they can finish building intercontinental missiles.
Koreans are just too stupid to know it now but next year they will be all for Goguhn, the front man for Korean Commies. Kim DaeJung fixed Korean politics so that only his people can get the presidency. Korean media, universities and community organizations are all run by Jolla Commies.
The US should ban Korean goods as long as Korea supports NK by sending money to NKs. Koreans are Talebans.
Read the following article on how Rho feels about Korean defense,
http://www.chosun.com/politics.....30008.html
대통령 돼서 처음 보고를 받아보니까 우리 독자적으로는, 턱도 없는 것처럼 보고가 되더라. 기존에 보고하던 공식이더라. 국방에 관한 한 미국이 주역으로 돼있다 (Rho bragging) When I became the president of Korea and received the defense report for the first time, it said that Korea cannot defend itself by itself. The typical routine. It said that America is the main player for Korean defense. (So, I aided American 2nd division to move out of DMZ and now I am telling the US soldiers to go home).
Rho finished his military service as a buck private. He never got any briefing on Korean defense plan. Yet, when he received the first report prepared by military experts, he just trashed it and pressed his ideology. What a pompous idiot!
When NKs bomb Seoul in near future, he will finally realize, only too late, that the US Forces are necessary for Korean defense.
For those who do not know, NKs have thousands of long-range artillary aimed at Seoul. They can carpet-shell Seoul anytime they want.
Something to think about.
The last defense minister publicly announced that Korean air force can take out all enemy artilleries in less than six minutes. Six minutes! Thousands of artilleries with no known positions.
He must be smoking some strong stuff.
What is more surprising is that Koreans believed him. Six minutes.
I will commit a sepuku if SKs can stop the shelling in six days. The moderate projection is two weeks if the US airforce is still in Korea. Without the US Airforce, forget it. Forget about the war as well. NK wins.
“The last defense minister publicly announced that Korean air force can take out all enemy artilleries in less than six minutes. Six minutes! Thousands of artilleries with no known positions.”
Nope. What do you think that satellite they’ve got is for? 20 years ago, scientists could find a dried up river under meters of sand in the Sahara desert with weather satellite. Just imagine what they can do with current satellite technology.
Robert, thank you for banning “tressjess”. That garbage can crap was getting annoying.