After spending a few column inches berating the United New Democrats and the Democratic Labor Party, SNU Law Professor Jo-guk gave some advice on what the two parties need to do to get right with the people again (the Hanky):
The UNDP and DLP both need to engage in fundamental self-reflection, and the fundamental reforms including personnel reforms, which should come with that. Both parties have roots in the anti-dictatorship democracy movement.
Let’s stop for a moment. Jo Gyosunim has inadvertently hit on two problems with the progressive parties.
First, they seem to stuck in the past. This isn’t the 1980s. There aren’t any tanks on the streets. Yeah, Lee Myung-bak is conservative and has a bit of an authoritarian streak, but he ain’t Chun Doo-hwan. The guy was actually arrested during the Park Chang-hee administration for protesting against normalizing relations with Japan (two points that you think would give him some street cred).
A related problem is that they give off a sense of entitlement based on what some of them did in the 1980s. That sense of entitlement means that they were slow to adjust to a changing electorate. I really think some of the 486ers can’t understand why younger voters turned against them after all they had done in the 1980s.
They need to renew their hearts and lower their postures and go out into the cold. They did not campaign for democracy to wear National Assembly member lapel pins and get cabinet posts, right? They need to start all over again by taking off those pins, loosening those neckties, getting out of those chauffeured cars, and put on jackets and sneakers. Otherwise, the UNDP could find itself turning into a regional party and the DLP could find itself a tiny party with no political significance.
Ah, yes, the old get back out into the wilderness trick.
I think Jo is at least partially right here, although the UNDP would have a hard time even being a regional party in the National Assembly elections if it doesn’t make some kind of deal with the Democratic Party.
However, I believe Jo is mistaken if he believes that waging a 1980s-style democracy campaign against a democratically elected government will go far.
If the UNDP were asking me for advice (which they are not), I would tell them to accept that the April National Assembly elections will be lost and hit hard on issues that would split off enough voters to limit the damage. A good place to start would be taking a noisy stand against the ROK-USA FTA.
I would not go as far as Kotaji advocated progressives going in the presidential election, but when you are that far behind, it is time to break out the wedge issues.
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I suspect their problems are more like the same problems that plague the idealist that thinks they can run a healthy society from ideological theories only. Based upon what I have heard and seen, these people are basically not very rational or balanced in their experiences or views.
An analogy would be like the fellow who is really good with a hammer. Using the hammer, he heroically struggled and gained a living, finally getting married. When he had a baby and his wife wanted him to help feed the baby, he reached for his hammer and . . . ouch. Thus our hero needs to learn new skills instead of relying upon the wrong tools which are no longer relevant for the circumstances.
I believe the correct term is the 386 generation or 386ers. The problem with that particular generation is that they feel that their ideals and ways of doing things are always correct, which in turn leads to the inability to accept change, and conflict with other generations who sees things differently. That and the we are entitled, we deserve everything mentality mentioned above. Of course what do you expect out of people who spent their entire college years skipping class and pretty much getting their way.
I wonder if the UNDP and DLP 386ers realize the irony that a lot of their fellow 386ers voted for LMB, in the hope that his economic programs will increase the value of their stock and real estate investments.
These two parties are similar to Democrats in the states, right? They want to expand government, create a socialist state, and increase taxes to redistribute wealth to those that didn’t earn it. The way that these x86 behave (self-entitlement and all) seems awfully similar to H. Clinton. Perhaps I’m speaking to soon, but would that make Chung Dong Yong the Clinton of Korea?
Street cred, hunh? Good one…Word.
I am reminded of a great lecture by Lee In-ho that I first heard about here in Hole. An hour long, but a thoroughly interesting review of how Korean politics got where it is now. (In English).
http://play.korea.com/Koreaforum/658
I should give ups to the RAS for that lecture. It was one of their Somerset Palace series.
Interesting post Andy, thanks.
The UNDP was a fairly unholy alliance to begin with I believe, and many a pundit and left-leaning voter I have spoken with think that the Uri party should have stayed intact and set about reinventing itself… all this bolting and fragmenting doesn’t seem to lead anywhere special, voters recognise old wine in new bottles strangely enough…
A major problem does seem to be simply what the centre/left here stands for? As you and some other commentators have pointed out, railing against the ‘party of the dictators’ and fretting about a ‘return to the past’ is somewhat counterproductive when your behaviour is epitomising precisely that return.
The progressives could focus on tax cuts to small and medium sized businesses (which are often genuinely innovative) whilst defending the rules preventing industrial capital from gobbling up banks. [Ok, after Enron no one wants to say the words "crony capitalism" in Asia, but account fiddling and subsidising loss making subsidiaries happens when such cross-fertilisation is allowed to take place without any restrictions] Emphasise the need for transparency in business practises; put forward a plan to bring Korea to the cutting edge of environmental technologies and reducing C02 emissions…protecting greenbelt sites, pushing for cutting edge energy-efficient architecture (tightening regulations for construction companies), green and at 100$ oil a great way to reduce import costs later in the day…
and finally, (I’m babbling a touch, i know) acknowledge that the government was looking a touch bloated (416 government committees; 56 ministries?! You don’t need to be “right-wing” to realise that may be a few more than necessary)
hello, UNDP? Your very own David Eldon…live from the Marmot’s hole…