EDITORIAL: Election in South Korea
08/22/2007
Four months from now, South Korea will go to the polls to elect a successor to President Roh Moo-hyun. The conservative opposition Hannara (Grand National Party), which lost the two previous presidential elections, has picked former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung Bak, 65, as its candidate in the party's primary.
The former Centrist Reformists Democratic Party, which Roh represented in the 2002 election, split after Roh formed the Uri Party in 2003.
But the nation's pro-government forces began regrouping this past spring, and the Uri Party officially disbanded on Monday to merge with the United New Democratic Party. The latter will nominate its presidential candidate in October.
As the outcome of the election will likely have an impact on Asian affairs, including Japan's, we are watching the race closely.
When he was president of Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co., Lee adopted an aggressive overseas marketing strategy. As mayor of Seoul, he actively pursued urban redevelopment. By his own admission, he now wants to become "the nation's CEO."
The presidential nomination race within Hannara was effectively a duel between Lee and Park Geun Hye, 55, the eldest daughter of assassinated former President Park Chung Hee. Although she was billed sensationally as the "first would-be woman president," she lost the nomination by a small margin.
We found it unfortunate that the rival camps allowed the race to turn into a mud-slinging contest, rather than a legitimate policy debate. According to opinion polls, Hannara easily leads pro-government parties in popularity. But its fortunes will rest on its ability to overcome internal discord and establish unity.
The pro-government forces, too, have yet to fully consolidate, and further political developments are expected in the coming months.
But on both sides of the political spectrum, we cannot really see how the parties and the presidential candidates differ in policy or philosophy. We hope there will be active debate on specific topics, such as how the outgoing Roh administration should be rated, how the relationship with North Korea should evolve, where South Korea intends to position itself in Asia, and what sort of ties it envisages with Japan.
Exactly 20 years have passed since the military junta was overthrown and the nation adopted its present democratic Constitution. The 1970s and the 1980s saw bloody struggles for democratization, and the 1990s brought the consolidation of hard-earned democracy. The current decade is for bringing that democracy to maturity.
There is heightened public awareness for political participation and greater calls for transparency. Reflecting this trend, the parties invited rank-and-file citizens to vote for presidential candidates of their choice and factored the results of opinion polls into the nomination of their candidates.
There were twists and turns leading up to the 2002 election, the most dramatic of which was an about-face by a high-profile politician who withdrew his support for Roh on the eve of voting day. As is obvious from that example, political dynamism is far more pronounced in South Korea than in Japan. It was also a sign of political instability.
Young people were encouraged to participate, resulting in Roh's victory, through use of the Internet and cellphones.
We wonder what new political phenomena will emerge this time. We will follow developments up to December with great interest.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 21(IHT/Asahi: August 22,2007)