Don’t nominate foul-mouthed politicians

With ten months left before the next parliamentary elections on April 10, the Democratic Party (DP) and the governing People Power Party (PPP) are bent on fueling public hatred toward politics. Rep. Yoon Young-chan, a DP lawmaker and a former senior secretary for communication in Moon Jae-in’s Blue House, has denounced President Yoon Suk Yeol for “becoming the president in a de facto coup,” referring to his dramatic transformation into the head of state from a prosecutor general in the Moon administration. The lawmaker’s remarks were a reaction to President Yoon’s description of the former administration as “anti-state forces” the previous day. But the shameful comment from the former presidential secretary for communication constitutes a direct defamation on the legitimacy of Yoon’s election as president.

After the lawmaker refused to apologize, Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, chairman of the PPP, attacked both the legislator and the DP for “having lost their minds” only to seek immediate gains. The DP demanded an apology from the PPP chair. But basically, there was no difference between them.

DP leader Lee Jae-myung was no different. On Friday, he triggered public outrage by attributing the substandard war of words to “the extreme rightist president and government.” The heated race for vulgar words between leaders of the two major parties dumbfounds us.

Over Japan’s plan to discharge the treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific, the PPP and DP resort to the extreme. On Saturday, two PPP lawmakers shocked customers at a fish market in Seoul by scooping a cup of sea water out of a water tank containing live fish and drank it to prove no radioactive contamination. In reaction, DP lawmakers went on a hunger strike “until Tokyo stops releasing the contaminated water into the ocean.”

Lawmakers of the two parties took the action to help rally support from their political base with novel stunts ahead of the legislative election. But the results of our past elections show that voters always delivered a wise verdict on such politicians. Rough words and actions could earn an ephemeral support from voters, but always led to election defeats. Politicians must squarely face the harsh reality where nearly 40 percent of the voters support neither party due to their disenchantment with the two parties.

In the national convention of the U.S. Democratic Party in 2016, Michelle Obama famously said, “When they go low, we go high,” referring to Donald Trump’s slanders against Hillary Clinton. Our voters will be watching who keeps integrity as politicians. The DP and PPP must not nominate such lawmakers with no dignity in next year’s election.