[Comfort Women issue] Ruling party loses miserably.
Ruling party loses miserably. The root cause for this is nothing but the “four years of the Moon Administration.” Still, Moon refuses to show himself.
President Moon Jae-in, regarding the results from the by-elections on April 7, remarked, “We take seriously the people’s reproach and return to our duties of national governance with an even more humble attitude.” He also said, “We will make every efforts to overcome COVID-19, stabilize the people’s life, and clean up the real estate corruption.” It was a short, two-line message. There was no mention of reshuffling the members in the office of the president. None of the staff at the office of the president offered to resign to take responsibility for losing the election. There was no message of launching a bold policy shift, either.
At the election in Seoul, the Democratic Party lost in all 25 districts, and the margin of votes received between candidates from the ruling and opposing parties reached 18 percent. Democratic Party candidates lost in every district in Busan as well, and here, the difference in votes reached as high as 28 percent. This is reminiscent of the miserable defeat of the ruling Uri party in the 2006 local elections, near the end of the Roh Moo-hyun administration. It shows how strong the citizens’ wrath against the Moon administration was.
It seems that President Moon believes this miserable defeat is a temporary problem caused by the steep rise in apartment prices and the land speculation scandal involving employees of the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH). There is no doubt that this is a huge misunderstanding. The real estate problem was merely the spark that set off the huge pile of anger that was built up during the four years of the Moon administration. The Democratic Party is making various analyses of the reasons why it lost, but nobody is willing to say the truth about what the real cause is. The root cause of the miserable defeat in this election is not the candidates or the strategy. It is President Moon and the four years of his administration.
President Moon, who entered office with the slogan of fairness and justice, was the first to show off unfairness and injustice. He appointed Ministers of Justice, Cho Kuk, Choo Mi-ahe, and Park Beom-kye, who embody unfairness and insolence in rapid succession. Is it acceptable for the presidential office to intervene in the election process in order to elect a 30-year-long personal friend of President Moon? Though he instructed the prosecutors to investigate even living authorities strictly, he fired the Prosecutor General immediately after the prosecutors started to investigate the administration’s wrongdoings. He created the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials at any cost for the purpose of defending his administration. When his haphazard policies, such as income-driven growth, abandoning nuclear power, and real estate, started to overflow with criticism, he ignored them. He missed the opportunity to bring in the vaccine, creating the worst nation in the world in vaccination, yet continues to play the blindfold show.
Above all, what came up time and again were the “Naeronambul” - double standards, which is to prevent others from doing something and do the same thing by yourself behind the scenes. The only reason that he had continued to win elections was because the opposing party was so completely incompetent. Who is in the center of incompetence, fraud, hypocrisy, and Naeronambul? Isn’t it President Moon? Korean people did not give their judgement on the individual Democratic Party candidates running in this election. They gave judgement on President Moon. No matter who the candidates were, no matter what strategies were employed, the Democratic Party could not have avoided miserable defeat.
President Moon, even after receiving the harsh warning from the public, does not show any sign of change. He hides behind the scenes while sending his secretary out to make a few insignificant statements. Given the magnitude of the reproach handed down from the people, isn’t it reasonable for the president to announce the change of overall policy in front of the people?
The Chosun Ilbo (April 9th, 2021)
https://www.chosun.com/opinion/editorial/2021/04/09/IO4OJJRKMZE3JIVDAMCJJIAGTM/