A party devoted to favoritism

Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday didn’t attend a full meeting of lawmakers of the majority party. Earlier, its senior members not loyal to Lee criticized him for giving them low scores in the evaluation of their four-year performance as lawmakers to nominate competitive candidates ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections. Rumors also spread that the party conducted popularity polls on its lawmakers after removing the names of legislators not close to Lee.

In the meeting, most of the 15 members not loyal to Lee raised suspicions about his attempt to privatize the majority party. Even floor leader Hong Ik-pyo confessed to his responsibility for the confusion. But the party leader avoided the meeting. We wonder if Lee really intends to address the outbursts of complaints.

The conflict over the nominations is getting out of control. Circumstantial evidence suggests the possibility of Lee and his confidantes trying to eliminate anti-Lee members from long ago. Even the chair of the nomination committee admitted that he had received a “document” on lawmakers’ ranks and scores from the evaluation committee. That’s the same as an admission of his role as a puppet in the nomination process, as lawmakers not friendly to Lee received the bottom 10 percent scores. Instead, the evaluation committee gave high scores to pro-Lee lawmakers after arbitrarily branding them as “new recruits.”

The DP leader reportedly recommended a former lawmaker not run in the election, citing his poor score. “You are in the bottom of the bottom,” Lee told him. We wonder if a party leader has ever neutralized the nomination committee. Instead, Lee’s former aides — and lawyers defending him in court trials over the Daejang-dong development scandal — are rushing to run in DP-dominated constituencies. There were reasons why Lee stressed the need to turn the DP into his own. Is he interested in creating his own party rather than winning the election?

The major party received 68.5 billion won ($51.3 million) in subsidies from the government last year. Such a party should not be privatized by the leader. And yet, Lee apparently wants to fix election rules by himself and nominate candidates as long as he likes. Such an off-track approach has already backfired. In public surveys, the DP’s approval rating is lower than the governing People Power Party (PPP)’s outside the margin of error. Lee must return to his senses and give full authority to the nomination committee.

The PPP is no different. Conflict over the governing party’s preference of lawmakers close to President Yoon Suk Yeol for nominations will surely surface. The party must learn lessons from the DP before it is too late.