Intriguing analogy between PPP and LDP

Kim Hyun-ki
The author is the Tokyo bureau chief and rotating correspondent of the JoongAng Ilbo.

“I have to be hospitalized for two days if the hematuria returns, which is why I can no longer command the Diet. But I can continue to serve on the parliament as the doctor says symptoms ease from the third day,” a feeble Hiroyuki Hosoda said in a press conference on Oct. 13. He made the comment while announcing his resignation as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Japan.

The 79-year-old politician looked sickly, as if he could drop at any minute. But he raised his voice when a reporter asked why he was not stepping down as a lawmaker if he had health issues. “A bladder infection is like asthma. It does not affect everyday work. No one can replace me,” he said. When asked if he would be running in the next parliamentary election, he tersely said, “I cannot just say good-bye and leave [the constituency] to someone else.”

His claim is baffling, as it means he can serve as a lawmaker even though his health issues no longer allow him to serve as the house speaker. He scorns at anyone who questions his reasoning. Hosoda represents the typical old-school politics of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The politics remain unchanged regardless of the changes in the overall society. More interestingly, no one in the mighty party, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, calls for self-reflection or a makeover of the regressive — and arrogant — ways. They just carry on.

Is Korea’s People Power Party (PPP) any different? The governing party degenerated into a regional party representing South and North Gyeongsang Provinces even after its crushing defeat in the recent by-election in Seoul. Voters in the capital region clearly sent their message demanding an overhaul of the conservative party, yet it steadfastly sticks to its ways. Feigning a change, the party has launched an innovation committee. Yet the party leadership has stayed unchanged and shifted the responsibility for the overhaul to an outsider. The party chairman, who has no drive, capacity or sense of accountability, retains his office and appoints an outsider as the head of the innovation committee. This is not normal.

Could the party ever get past its makeshift ways of launching expedient committees for emergency or innovation without taking any responsibility for all the mess? PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon promised to give Ihn Yo-han — a former professor at Yonsei University College of Medicine and Korea’s first special naturalized citizen — the full authority over the revamp. What’s the need for a party leader if he hands over full authority to another?

PPP members are equally pitiful for staying mum against the pretentious ways of the leadership comprised of loyalists to President Yoon Suk Yeol. But how can we expect anything different when the party seats a rookie with only a few years of political experience on the executive board and stays tolerant of a member, who used to run as a presidential candidate, boasting about launching an online campaign to oust a former party head? Their littleness is too sad to watch.

People Power Party leader Kim Gi-hyeon, right, talks with Ihn Yo-han, who was brought in to innovate the lethargic party, in his office on Oct. 23. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

The governing parties of Japan and Korea are detached from public sentiment, but the PPP could meet its doom if it continues to follow in the footsteps of the LDP. First, unlike Japanese voters, Korean voters can be very cruel in their judgment. The Japanese mechanically voted for LDP candidates even while living in shelters for years after the monstrous earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

They are particularly soft on the powerful. Just look at the scandal with entertainment behemoth Johnny & Associates. The flare-up over the allegations that its company founder Johnny Kitagawa had long molested and abused his girl groups only gained momentum after his death. The former house speaker also could gain nomination and possibly the necessary vote from his constituency votes. The Japanese are quite different from Koreans, who cannot sit quietly with those who abuse their power.

And unlike Japan where opposition parties are nearly nonexistent, Korea has a mighty opposition party backed by die-hard supporters. Japan has about 40 percent centrists with no allegiance to a certain party. That ratio is just 10 to 20 percent in Korea. Koreans have become clear about what they like or dislike. The distinction has deepened under the current conservative administration.

Without a surgical operation, the PPP won’t be able to win back the voters it lost. One last different circumstance for the governing parties of the two countries is that the LDP leadership of Japan remains intact regardless of how many factions it has. The leadership is worshiped like a religion. But in Korea’s political parties, members are always ready to jump ship and bolt out. The PPP must come to realize its dire situation.