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It’s a matter of substance over style

Published: 21 Aug. 2024, 20:03

Conflict over the format of the first meeting between governing People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon and his Democratic Party (DP) counterpart Lee Jae-myung on the coming Sunday is deepening. After the PPP proposed the event be broadcast live, the DP opposed it. In their working-level meeting on Wednesday, both parties failed to narrow their differences over the style of their leaders’ first meeting after the April 10 parliamentary elections which ended with the DP’s landslide victory.

The two leaders finally decided to meet after strong public criticism arose over the two major parties still engrossed in political battles three months after the 22nd National Assembly opened in May. Their first face-to-face meeting will be held to draw consensus on livelihood-related matters and reach a political compromise on many sensitive issues. If the meeting is covered live, the two leaders will most likely confront, not embrace, each another during the meeting, as their past trajectory suggests.

The PPP’s proposal of the live broadcast of the meeting shows how low their mutual trust fell. Nevertheless, the two leaders must try to build confidence through candid dialogue. They would certainly not want their fights to be exposed to the public again.

What really matters are the agendas for their meeting and their will to compromise. While the PPP presented the recovery of people’s livelihood and political reform as the top agenda items to be discussed in the meeting, the DP put priority on a special investigation into the tragic death of a Marine on a rescue mission last year, a 250,000-won ($187) cash handout per citizen and the restoration of their district office system for elections. None of these topics can be taken lightly. In particular, helping the struggling working class, the self-employed and small merchants have emerged as the most pressing issue. We hope the two leaders demonstrate the wisdom to take a step back. They also must prepare an effective system to abolish our lawmakers’ excessive privileges. If they do so, they can regain trust from voters.

But the two leaders must take a prudent approach to the issue of restoring their district office system which the two parties abolished in 2004 due to a number of adverse effects. The two leaders say it’s just a part of political reforms. But we don’t have to fuel the politicization of all issues as in the past.

Instead, they must deal with more important issues like extending the K-chips Act and tackling the resurgence of Covid-19. We also hope they present more concrete and creative solutions to our problems. It’s just like what Michelle Obama said in the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The two parties must “do something.”