Time for ex-democracy fighters to retreat

Former Democratic Party (DP) leader Song Young-gil was finally arrested on Tuesday for his alleged role in handing out cash to DP members to help him get elected as the new party leader in a convention two years ago. He has been suspected of giving more than 60 million won ($45,900) to party members in 2021. Song is also suspected to have received over 700 million won from his supporters, including corporate leaders. A judge in the Seoul Central District Court issued his arrest warrant citing the possibility of destruction of evidence. Earlier, Song nonchalantly brushed off all the allegations against him.

The former DP leader has never shown remorse over the scam. After fleeing to Paris and leaving the party, he insisted that he had not been aware of the cash handouts. Even after taped conversations appeared — and even though his allies were arrested by the police one after another — Song repeatedly hurled insults at Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon for looking into his suspicions. Song, a former five-term lawmaker, even vowed to create a satellite party to be elected as a lawmaker again.

Song represents the shameful double standards of former democracy fighters against the military government. After being elected as student president of Yonsei University, he led a national crusade against the military dictatorship in the 1980s. That career helped him become a lawmaker of the DP five times since 2000. His brazen dismissal of the cash handout as “something trivial” explicitly shows the immorality of former democracy fighters. Their once-proud moral superiority has collapsed. Song must sincerely comply with the prosecution’s investigation into all his suspicions.

Despite the arrest of the former leader, the DP has not issued any apology on the party level. The DP cannot even look into possible corruption of its lawmakers involved in the cash scam due to many judicial risks involving its own boss, Lee Jae-myung. Many former democracy fighters are seated on key posts of the liberal party. Regardless of the deepening complaints from junior lawmakers about the high-handed behavior of their seniors, they simply do not care. The younger lawmakers increasingly worry about their seniors’ ominous impact on the upcoming parliamentary election in April.

The once-new blood of the DP has never presented a new discourse that fits the new era. Their adherence to the old-fashioned ideological battle has degenerated themselves into targets for reform. Before retiring from the political stage, a former icon of democracy movement stressed the need to improve people’s livelihood, not democracy anymore. The time has come for those democracy fighters to retreat and open a new path for their younger peers.