Where is your confidence, Mr. Lee?

Moon Byung-joo
The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Lee Jae-myung, the head of the Democratic Party (DP), and his loyal brigade must be losing their bravado. They must have realized that their boss might not be able to wiggle out of criminal charges against him under the current law and order system. Lee scorned journalists as prosecutors’ “pet dogs,” and DP Rep. Yang Moon-seok added onto the flack, saying the simile is a “disgrace to pet dogs.” The DP is readying a motion to impeach prosecutors investigating its boss.

The majority opposition is also discussing a motion to impeach the judges who slapped a nearly 10-year jail sentence on Lee Hwa-young for arranging an illicit payment to North Korea while serving as a deputy governor when Lee was Gyeonggi governor. The same bench will be presiding over the same trial on Lee. Lee’s diehard supporters have been ratcheting up offenses by holding protest rallies against “political judges” in front of the court and taking signatures for an impeachment campaign. Inside the National Assembly, the DP is gearing up for a number of bills to corner the prosecution: a special bill to investigate Ssangbangwool Group’s payment to North Korea; a bill to investigate the practices of calumny by law enforcement agencies; a bill to ban “target investigation”; and a bill to prohibit the prosecution’s distortion in investigations. The law enables punishment on judges or prosecutors if they doctor laws to favor or oppose a suspect.

The DP is also proposing to adopt a system to elect judges instead of leaving appointments up to the government. The party is out to work up its supporters to seat judges of its liking. Lawyer-turned-DP lawmaker Kim Dong-ah, who represented Lee’s aide in the case of the Daejang-dong development scandal, calls for “a sweeping judiciary reform” beyond the prosecution. The campaign to command “democratic control” over the judiciary branch is progressing nicely, all thanks to heavy vying among DP members to score points with Lee, dubbed as the “father of DP.” Since they cannot stop the trials on Lee under the current Constitution and legal system, they want to wipe out the existing rules.

The footmen of the operation claim they are upholding “public wishes,” but the DP’s approval rating says otherwise. The party gained 161 representative seats — 71 more than the People Power Party (PPP) — in the April election, but was ahead only by 5.4 percent in voting rates. According to the Gallup Korea poll, the DP’s approval rating dipped below 30 percent in June behind the PPP whose rating is above 30 percent, and failed to win over the 23 percent who have no party preference.

Although differing in time and system, Korea’s political state resembles that of Athens that caved into a demagogue and sent its great thinker Socrates to his death in 399 B.C. Rabble-rousers stirred up the people and the citizens’ jury to deliver a death penalty on Socrates. The demagogue pressed on with the losing battles with Sparta instead of seeking a peace treaty, causing Athens’s doom. Korean politics also are resorting to inflammatory campaigns and rallies instead of compromise and negotiations, and are exploiting the majority principle to place ochlocracy above democracy.

Only the rule of law can contain the dangers of a populist majority rule. The Constitution and the law apply equally to all citizens. However, the bills aiming to pressure the judiciary branch can shake the rules. They mask the DP’s motive to shape laws and state affairs to its favor. The party is trying to enforce “rule by law” witnessed only in dictatorship and totalitarian regimes. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said the DP is resorting to terror politics seen under Stalin and Mao Zedong regimes.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae emphasized the judiciary branch must be the “last resort” of democracy. The trials on Lee can become a litmus test on the sovereignty of the judiciary branch, but exactly when the test can take place is unknown. The court has been deferring trials on Lee by his request, citing his position as the head of the main opposition. Lee is expected to use all the rights and excuses as a criminal suspect to put off the trials.

Lee should act proudly if he is indeed as innocent as he claims. He should demand swift trials so that he can remove judiciary risks as soon as possible. Relying on out-of-court noise by stirring up his followers within and outside the party cannot be honorable. To be true to the name of democracy, he must stand the trials to show he, too, is equal before the law like everyone else.