Ahn Hee-jung wind vs. Honam people's agony

At the Democratic Party's presidential candidate election in 2002, then candidate Roh Moo-hyun decisively beat Rhee In-je, another candidate, in March in Gwangju. At the Jeju competition, which was held first, Roh ranked just third place but ranked No. 1 at Ulsan, while creating a huge stir in Gwangju. Rhee who had overwhelmingly won in Daejeon, his hometown, had to give up the candidate election saying an invisible hand is controlling the competition.

Rhee pointed to Park Jie-won, then special policy adviser to president as the culprit. Having felt something wrong in Ulsan competition, Rhee became confident of the presidential office as the mastermind when Roh won in Gwangju. He suspected that the situation couldn't have occurred if it wasn't for the Donggyo-dong force and teenager groups in the outskirts of the Democratic Party. Conspiracy theories were rampant but nothing was proven as truth.

The story that happened 15 years earlier was revealed recently by Park. Appearing at Dong-A's cable TV channel Channel A's program "Cutting the Gordian Knot" in April 2013, Park said, "I repeatedly tried to persuade President Kim Dae-jung that we need to make Roh presidential candidate and the president ultimately said that it would be good if Roh could become president. He meant that then Gwangju Mayor Park Gwang-tae was ordered to support Roh by mobilizing his organization. Roh was judged to have been the best person to implement Kim's thoughts like the Sunshine Policy.

Besides the presidential office's support, The Roh wind in Gwangju was possible due to the strategic choice of Honam area people. Honam people have a strong tendency not to create empty votes and cast their votes to a candidate who could change the regime. Such Honam people's sentiment also supported Ahn Cheol-Soo, a Busanian and from the People's Party at the April general elections last year. Now, Honam's sentiment that had been tilted towards Moon Jae-in, the top presidential contender and former Democratic Party leader, is to some extent going to Ahn Hee-jung, another Democratic Party presidential candidate. Ahn Hee-jung's fate now depends upon whether he can create a strong wind in Gwangju, the first candidate competition area of the Democratic Party.