[Editorial] Don’t forget the painful lessons from 2020

In Monday’s press conference, Jeon Kwang-hoon, a right-wing pastor, suggested “some ways to protect our liberal democracy in crisis.” They include “a national movement to persuade the public to join the People Power Party (PPP), scrap party leaders’ authority to nominate candidates in parliamentary elections and hold primaries centered around party members.” When he asked PPP lawmakers if they could win 200 seats in the 300-member legislature in next year’s election, they said they can win if he supported them, according to the 66-year-old. “If so, I will postpone the establishment of my own party. But if the PPP goes the wrong way, I will punish them,” the pastor said.

The PPP was outraged. Party Chair Kim Gi-hyeon said, “I am dumbfounded at his ludicrous remarks. I wish he shuts up.” A spokesperson for the party criticized the far-right church leader for “plotting to intervene in nominating candidates in the election” next year. Such sensitive reactions from the party leader and the spokesperson reflect their strong need to overcome a crisis originating with the pastor.

It all started with a senior member of the PPP, who expressed opposition to the idea of including the spirit of the Gwangju Uprising in the Constitution. The senior member even praised the priest for “trying to unify the conservative front.” A coarse exchange of verbal attacks between the senior member and the feisty Daegu mayor over the pastor only fueled the internal division.

The battle between the PPP and the priest was triggered by the party from the beginning. In a national convention in 2019 to elect a new leader of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP), a predecessor to the PPP, a certain candidate was rumored to have brought thousands of far-right followers of the pastor to the conservative party. Their numbers reached two percent of the entire electoral college at the time. The LKP joined hands with his followers in a battle to oust president Moon Jae-in. Appearing on the stage of a rally orchestrated by the pastor, PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon also praised him for “being a prophet Isaiah” in a crusade to “judge the corrupt administration under Moon.” Such a hard-line stance was needed to recover public trust after the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, but the move was thoroughly shunned by the moderates. That led to the crushing defeat of the PPP in the parliamentary elections three years ago.

But the PPP led by Kim seems to have forgotten the painful lessons from the past. The highest turnout of an ultra-conservative party led by the pastor was 2.6 percent in the 2008 parliamentary elections. If the PPP leader desperately wants an election victory to help stabilize the government, he must pay heed to people with common sense.