[Column] Wake up, politicians

Han Kyung-hwan

The author is a senior editor of the JoongAng Sunday.

“[Korea’s] politics is the fourth tier, and bureaucrats are the third tier, while business is the second tier,” Lee Kun-hee, then-chairman of Samsung Group, said in 1993 when he declared the “New Management” initiative during his visit to Frankfurt, Germany. What changes have come today after 30 years? Evaluations of bureaucrats and businesses may be mixed, but politics is definitely degraded to the fifth tier. We can see flaws everywhere.

Our political circles are mired in an endless political battle among lawmakers in almost all areas and issues. They are stained by inflammatory populism and buried in the fandom politics of hardcore supporters. We have never seen a game of chicken like this. Legislators damaged the dignity of the political arena with their extreme words and actions and demonized their rivals to heighten the wall of distrust. As the war of division, led by politicians, spreads like a virus, the entire country suffers from the novel “schism syndrome.”

Factional fights are fierce inside a political party over the nomination power for the parliamentary elections next April. With less than one year left before the election, internal conflicts will grow deeper and fiercer.

In the case of the People Power Party (PPP), internal discord reached its peak recently during the party chair election. The Democratic Party’s (DP) internal conflict was revealed after many of its lawmakers voted to pass a motion to allow Chairman Lee Jae-myung’s detention over a plethora of allegations against him. Lee’s stalwarts started a campaign to reveal who they were. Internal frictions are unavoidable in all political parties anywhere, but the problem is the degree. Mudslinging that makes even the general public outside the party frown is powerful enough to compel them to turn their backs on politics itself.

National interests are not the priority either. The greatest mission of politics is to promote national interests. It is extremely hard to expect bipartisan cooperation in foreign affairs and security fields directly related to our national interests. People wonder if the politicians are from the same country. Over the issue of restoring Korea-Japan relations, the PPP and the DP have shown their bare faces. The Yoon Suk Yeol administration and his PPP have failed to have enough communication with people, including the victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor, and unilaterally announced a solution to the conundrum. The ruling front’s attitude is problematic, but other political parties’ sensational criticisms also crossed a point of no return. They may have temporary political gains by fueling anti-Japanese sentiments, but it is destined to hurt national interests. Meanwhile, the North is firing ballistic missiles and bragging about its new nuclear weapons, but politicians are sitting on their hands.

Negotiation and compromise — the pinnacle of democracy and politics — disappeared long ago. We only see the madness of dashes.
Most of all, President Yoon and his PPP should be held accountable for the colossal mess in the political theater. Leadership is nowhere to be seen in the legislature, where the PPP is outnumbered by the DP, not to mention a lack of dialogue. How can we expect cooperative politics and compromise under such circumstances?

It seems that an event of inviting veteran politicians to listen to their advice — a frequent political event in the past — is also no longer taking place. We are seeing more and more cases in which the government presented a policy hastily, as seen in the changing of the 52-hour workweek to a 69-hour workweek.

It is reported that the president will exercise his veto power on bills that were passed without consensus between the two parties. Until a new National Assembly is formed, the power struggle between the legislative and the executive branches of the government will continue. How can this be called politics or democracy?

The damage of the extreme standoff of the politicians is passed on to the people. Unless the high-handed politicians change, the voters must change them. Deviations of major parties and politicians must be judged by votes. The people must make a coldhearted judgment when politicians try to buy votes with populism. When the number of rational voters increases, a stern warning can be issued to the entire political arena.

We have seen the term “Korea discount.” It refers to the phenomenon that Korean companies’ stock prices were lower than their foreign counterparts due to geopolitical risks such as inter-Korean relations. Right now, politicians are the biggest reason behind the Korea discount. The distorted politicians are the very source of the weakness of Korea’s present and future.

Politics is damaging Korea’s brand value, not lifting it. It is hard to expect politicians to reflect on themselves to find a new path. Voters must determine their fate in the next legislative elections.