Can the innovation committee succeed?

The People Power Party (PPP) has finished making its 13-member innovation committee, led by Ihn Yo-han. Seven are women and eight are in their 20s to 40s, making up the majority. The committee chair, a former professor at Yonsei University College of Medicine, said, “Our committee is mostly comprised of young members. I will prescribe a bitter medicine to make the people think it’s refreshing.” But if you take a deeper look into its constituents, it is quite disappointing. People inside and outside the party criticize its “revolving-door appointments.” Could such a committee innovate the lethargic party?

The members include Rep. Park Sung-joon and two former lawmakers, Kim Kyung-jin and Oh Shin-hwan. Park served as a senior member of the transition committee of President Yoon Suk Yeol last year, while Kim and Oh are pro-Yoon and pro-Oh Se-hoon (Seoul mayor) politicians. Female members include Chung Seon-hwa, the head of a Jeonju constituency; Lee So-hee, a member of the Sejong city council; Lee Gemma, a professor at the department of international studies at Kyung Hee University; Lim Jang-mee, CEO of Mypetplus; Choi Anna, a professor of public administration at Sejong University; and Song Hee, a former MBC anchor.

But the chairman could not draw any of the lawmakers close to either former PPP head Lee Jun-seok or former lawmaker Yoo Seong-min, both notorious for bluntly opposing the president. Three other energetic politicians also refused to join the committee. Could it match the committee chair’s emphasis on integration? Instead, the committee included some who had stirred controversy. A PPP insider sarcastically said, “Once you start to wonder why the person became a member, the recruitment is a failure.”

The committee must first address the disappointment the voters showed in the recent by-election in Seoul. If it fails to recover public confidence and cannot secure a majority in the legislature in the next parliamentary election, the government cannot do anything. The innovation committee must change the vertical relationship between the president and the party into a horizontal one. Otherwise, the PPP cannot help the president change his high-handed approach to politics.

To achieve the goal, the committee must have a clear role and power. The chairman vowed to speak up to the president, but what matters is whether his innovation can be put into action. If he fails to persuade lawmakers to give up their vested interest, including a promise to not run in the next election, the party will be headed to another failure.