No future for PPP without soul searching

The recommendation from the governing People Power Party (PPP)’s innovation committee is causing backlash after it demanded that senior lawmakers and those close to President Yoon Suk Yeol should not run in the next parliamentary elections or run in districts in Seoul or Gyeonggi instead of their home turf in Gyeongsang. After Ihn Yo-han, chairman of the committee, demanded a resolute decision from the legislators in question, the spokesperson of the committee reiterated the need to inject new blood into the ailing party. But the committee’s call for a radical revamp of the conservative party has prompted vehement resistance from heavyweights in the PPP.

It remains to be seen whether such a change will be accepted by the leadership of the party, as the initiative primarily targets senior lawmakers who are afraid of losing their seats if they run in constituencies other than South and North Gyeongsang. PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon has avoided answering whether he would accept the drastic proposal. But clearly, many of the multi-term lawmakers were interested in caring for their own constituencies rather than sincerely engaging in legislative activities.

The way the lawmakers loyal to the president behaved was a problem, too. They were bent on appeasing the president instead of relaying the public opinions as they are. The PPP’s crushing defeat in the recent by-election in Seoul can be attributed to their blind submission to the president. They never talked straight with the president. It will be better for them to take responsibility and sacrifice themselves for an election victory five months later. If they wholeheartedly accept the proposals from the committee, they can give the impression that they really changed.

Over the weekend, Ihn went to Busan to meet former PPP leader Lee Jun-seok, whom he had pardoned for his aberrant ways, as a gesture to refresh the party. But Lee, the 30-something former party leader, ridiculed the committee chair: “The real patient is in Seoul.” Lee’s rough rhetoric was certainly inappropriate. But the committee needs to be mindful of the former party leader’s suspicion about whether the committee is actually trying to find out the root cause of the voters’ increasing disappointment with the PPP.

But the innovation committee has stopped short of raising issue with the president’s high-handed approach to governance and his repeated appointment fiascoes. Ihn even welcomed the return of Rep. Lee Chul-gyu, who had resigned as secretary general after the landslide election defeat, as chairman of the recruitment committee for new faces. If senior PPP lawmakers from the Gyeongsang region will be simply replaced by pro-Yoon lawmakers before the next election, the innovation committee has no raison d’être.