Former opposition chief denies changing his party’s identity

Former opposition chief denies changing his party’s identity. March. 26, 2016 07:31. by 송평인기자 pisong@donga.com.

Moon Jae-in, former chairman of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, came to the fore as soon as the party completed its nomination of candidates for the April 13 parliamentary elections. On Thursday, he criticized current party leader Kim Jong-in’s mention of the party’s identity. “Today’s debates over our party’s identity are ideological and useless.”

In a news conference on his return to the party after an internal feud over the candidate nominations, Kim mentioned the party’s identity over six times, saying that without addressing the controversies over the party’s identity, it has a long way to go before taking power. The remarks by Moon and Kim indicate that the actual and interim leaders of the party have clear differences over the party’s identity.

Rebutting calls for excluding pro-democracy activist-turned politicians within the party, Moon said such arguments saw “only one side” of the matter. “In order to win the elections, (the party) should expand its political spectrum to “the moderate and the reasonable conservatives.” The remarks suggest that Kim’s role was to complement the party, rather than changing its fundamental identity.

Moon is reinforcing the party’s existing nature by seeking alliance with other opposition parties. He even expressed his support for solidarity with an independent candidate who is a former member of the United Progressive Party, which was disbanded for being “unconstitutional.” It has been reconfirmed that the Minjoo Party’s identity is unlikely to change as long as Moon maintains his influence.

Judging from Moon’s remark that his party should be modeled after a political party, like the U.S. Democratic Party, which has a very wide political spectrum and even embraces progressive conservatives, he intends to woo the party’s traditional supporters, while having Kim embrace the conservatives. However, it is questionable whether the party with two leaders having differences over its identity can operate will. Despite the rhetoric of division of roles, Moon’s coming to the fore of the party should be seen as an attempt by the Moon faction’s to regain control over the party as Kim’s utility is running out.

As Moon’s return has made it clear that Kim was nothing but a hired gun, Kim denied he would exclude Moon’s faction, saying the party should basically move toward an identity that the public want it to have. Rather than seeking his fifth term as a representational lawmaker, he seems to have decided to be faithful to his role in helping the Minjoo Party expand to the middle ground. However, the party should keep it in mind that with such an identity, the Minjoo would never become a majority party in the National Assembly, not to mention winning the next presidential election.