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How to prevent yet another failed presidency

Published: 22 Dec. 2024, 19:47

Cho Yoon-je
The author is a special appointment professor at Yonsei University School of Economics.

The National Assembly’s impeachment of the sitting president was a necessary step aligned with the Constitution. President Yoon Suk Yeol has proven himself clearly unfit to oversee national security and state governance. A new administration is set to take form next spring, as the Constitutional Court is unlikely to face difficulty validating the impeachment based on obvious grounds.

However, we must not believe our task is complete simply because the gross misstep of Dec. 3 was corrected through the impeachment and removal of the president and subsequent election of a new leader. Though Yoon’s perception of the situation and actions were utterly stupefying, the latest martial law episode should not be viewed as an irrational act of a lone individual. It reflects deeper systemic and cultural fissures within our political landscape. Like all significant issues, this incident is a complex amalgam of individual shortcomings, structural flaws and cultural challenges.

The recent chain of dismaying events calls for a comprehensive, sober reckoning of our political system. The first area of scrutiny must be the process of raising, evaluating and electing political leaders. How did a person with such bigoted and impulsive judgment, so clearly unfit for national leadership, come to be a presidential candidate for a mainstream political party? How did he ascend to the presidency through a democratic election?

The second point of concern is our governance structure. Under the current system, the opposition can overwhelm the governing party following every landslide election victory. How can we address this deadlock, characterized by relentless partisanship and legislative paralysis, where the country’s two primary elected powers continuously wield their authority as weapons against one another?

The third area is our political culture. Many other countries operate under similar systems, yet few are plagued by the extreme political rivalries, cycles of vengeful politics and tragic presidential downfalls that seem uniquely entrenched in our country. The enormous cost of the current upheaval will be wasted if political parties, and society at large, focus solely on the immediate contest for power without seriously reflecting on these fundamental questions.

Democracy has always come with inherent limitations and vulnerabilities. Since the founding of our nation, we have witnessed the fragility of democratic institutions time and again. To safeguard democracy’s core values, we need mechanisms of checks and balances in governance, a political culture rooted in compromise and restraint, media committed to truth and intelligence, vigilant citizenship and inclusive communalism. The absence of these essentials brought us to today’s unsettling quagmire.

While all these issues cannot be resolved at once, immediate systematic improvements are possible. The current crisis largely stems from the concentration of power in a single president, pointing to the necessity of stronger separation of powers. However, this becomes unfeasible when the executive and legislative branches are controlled by rival parties, creating the very flashpoint that led to today’s disaster.

Dividing administrative authority between a president and prime minister could introduce further conflict and deadlock, as domestic and foreign policies are increasingly intertwined in today’s interconnected world. Institutional reforms require a pragmatic approach rooted in an honest assessment of our history and social customs, rather than ideological preferences. For instance, synchronizing presidential and legislative elections could reduce the likelihood of divided governance, while refining presidential powers through advisory and review bodies could ensure greater accountability.

Addressing political culture will be even more challenging. Korea’s democratic institutions were largely borrowed and implanted rather than homegrown. The cycles of confrontation and vengeance will not disappear with structural tweaks alone. Political parties must mature by grounding themselves in values and visions beyond mere electoral victories and power grabs. Voters, in turn, must cast their ballots based on these values rather than on regional loyalties. Blind allegiance to regionalism distorts parties’ priorities, shifting their focus from national well-being to narrow, self-serving interests. The current watershed moment should be used to rejuvenate the National Assembly with younger leaders less entrenched in contentious practices, facilitated by party reforms.

Recent events have demonstrated the public’s willpower and commitment to defending democracy. It is now time for politics to be elevated to public standards. To prevent the next presidency — which may arrive two and a half years earlier than expected — from ending in yet another failure, candidates must present detailed timetables for constitutional reform to overhaul the governance system. They must also articulate clear visions and actionable plans to improve political culture. Only by doing so can we transform today’s costly lessons into valuable opportunities for national progress, rather than letting them become a gross waste.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.