Uri Takes Another Election Beating
It lost all four contests in yesterday’s bi-election. Three seats went to the GNP; one to a Democratic Party candidate who spearheaded his party’s effort to impeach Roh:
The ruling Uri Party suffered another crushing defeat in Wednesday’s parliamentary by-elections. No Uri Party candidates won in the four constituencies of Seongbuk-eul and Songpa-gap, both in Seoul, Sosa in Gyeonggi Province and Masan-gap in South Gyeongsang Province. That means the ruling party has secured no seat in parliamentary by-elections since 2005.
So much for that backlash. Turnout was at an all-time low, which is the natural consequence of the parties not standing for anything particularly compelling or uplifting.
Among the Uri candidates defeated was former Roh mouthpiece Kim Man Soo.
“Among the Uri candidates defeated was former Roh mouthpiece Kim Man Soo. ”
Here’s more: ALL FOR PIG URI candidates WORKED FOR IMBECILE NO AT BLUE HOUSE!
Get it, these LOSERS are truly “corded” NO’s crony “yang a chiu” having worked directly for NO.
More sweet the yet another VICTORY since Cho from old democratic party talks more like GNP dude and led the impeachment.
You know what? The Uri getting so thoroughly trounced worries me. If the Uri were a viable political force in 2007, the GNP may actuall rally around a single candidate. But the Uri and thereby the Left’s seeming dissolution may make the conservatives too cocky and splinter behind two candidates a la 1997 and 2002. Lee Myung-bak has already said he’d bolt the GNP if he were not the presidential candidate, and Park Gun-hye has a history of “tal-dang” disease. And if such a disunion were to hand the Blue House yet again to the Leftists, I fear that even my optimism regarding the future of the U.S.-Korean alliance will sour.
I worry, too, although the one thing you can count on in a Korean election year is chaos, breakup, and rebirth all around.
The Uri trouncings seem to signal a split between left and far left. I suspect the left of center mojo will swing back to the DP, or DP 2.0 (which is itself MDP 2.0 …). There will be a new left coalition that will be less extreme than Uri, but which will still play the nationalism and xenophobia cards, and which will promise a more constructive, conditional type of engagement with North Korea.
Watching the Right is really what’s depressing. They’re selfish, ambitious, corrupt, and reactionary. They lack principles and an uplifting agenda with messianic appeal.
Things will move back to the center, but just how far is in doubt.
Joshua,
I too am worried about the Right. I don’t like Park Gun-hye, because she lacks both spine and a clear-set of principles. I would not be surprised if she does a Nixon vis-a-vis China and continue DJ-Roh era of accommodation toward North Korea albeit in a wateredm down form. I prefer Lee, but I am not sure whether he can unify the nation, given his seeming lack of political skills, in particular the capacity to compromise and at least appearing to listen and respect the opposition. I used to respect Sohn Hak-kyu but his unremitting support of Hwang Woo-suk has really disenchanted me. I know you are a fan of Kim Moon-soo, but I am congenitally skeptical of ideologues; let’s see whether he can govern responsibly in Kyong-gi first.
I think in terms of foreign policy sophistication, the man of GNP Park Jin, but I wonder if his loss in the preliminary election to the Seoul mayoral election has dimmed his luster and at least revealed his limitations as a campaigner. I do foresee Park as the likely Foreign Minister or Defense Minister if GNP wins the Blue House, and that will be the best thing that has happened to the U.S.-Korea alliance in a long time.
Won Joon and Joshua,
Good points… I worry to. This is what I wrote few days ago on this blog:
“Kevin,
Thanks for the kind words. My concern is whether GNP can hold itself up as 1 party and win next prez election in Dec 2007. One and half year is long time in ROK politics and recent infighting among GNP is disturbing. It’s possible that the next prez election is split between GNP, split-GNP, new party led by ex PM Koh, DJ’s old fart party and newly revived PIG Uri. In this scenario, it’s possible for PIGs to win again. Five more years to totally destroy ROK and hand it over to MURDERER Kim. Scary indeed…
As for NO and PIG Uri – they’re puppets and agents of sugar daddy MURDERER Kim one way or another. Thank god that people like Mihwa/NO/PIG Uri for now only can garner 10% approval.
By Duke on 24 July 2006 3:18 pm
I had to take a phone call so I couldn’t finish my thoughts.
Joshua, I know at times I appear as an apologist for corruption and dictatorship, but I think corruption in Korean politics is an inevitable by-product of a systemic corruption (perhaps nowhere equalled in an advanced economy in the world) that is difficult to root out in the short-term. Hence, among the various evils that a Korean politicians can be accused of, corruption is the least worrisome for me. You can’t do business or politics in Korea without compromising with your puritanical principles to some degree. Look at the history of those so-called “clean hands” whose politican careers were later mired in scandals, e.g., Kim Dae-jung–though from everything I hear, Kim was always self-serving and venal to begin with. And to some extent, but perhaps not much longer as the Korean economy and other sectors mature, corruption was beneficial for Korea under the given circumstances (see Dave Kang’s excellent study titled Crony Capitalism).
I don’t accept the proposition that Korea is “inevitably” corrupt, although countries do have political cultures that tend to all accept different forms of corruption, to different degrees.
Democratization is a process, not an event, as they say. Gradual change is possible.
Funny you say that about Park Jin. His card is in front of me right now. I met him last week and told him that I thought he’d be Korea’s foreign minister some day. He pretended to be embarrassed by that, which I suppose is good politics.
Hope he agrees to an interview here. There’s a lot I’d like to ask him about what kind of alliance we might or should rebuild from the rubble we have now.
Joshua,
When I said “inevitable by-product” I was only referring to the current social conditions in South Korea. I didn’t mean “inevitable for all times” or the like. I certainly hope that Korea will in the long-run will clean-up its money politics, and as bad as things are now, it’s light years ahead of the days of Syngman Rhee.
Park Jin is extremely articulate and not afraid to speak his mind (at least in his Korean interviews). So it would really be a treat if you can get him to answer some substantive questions about how he sees the country and his party evolving the next few years, among other things, of course.
The Confuscian way is ‘corrupt’. The haves have, and the have not’s will never have.
The haves take care of each other.
At least there is democracy and people can vote, and eat.
Most countries outside US/Canada, EU and handful of countries like Singapore are “corrupt”. It’s way of doing business and modus operandi for thousand plus years. Is it bad? Maybe yes but it’s part of life so better to go with the flow than to fight it.
Definition of “corruption” is different in each country/culture too. I’ve been working for US based multinational companies since 1986 including world’s largest multi-level marketing and software company and visited most of Asia plus NZ/Australia and Europe on business with very thick passport (added pages twice). I even took a course at USC for guideline on use of “bribes’ in Asia. I was demanded to pay $100 bill bribe at customs in India and even $5 at customs in Thailand when crossing from Malaysia. These are direct bribes. Then there are indirect bribes. It was all cost of doing business. I was recipient of many indirect bribes from expensive gifts (booze, artwork, finest teas – collegue even got a piano!), golf outings, “massages”, freebie room salon/KTV to girls in Asia. Was it ethical? According to local ways of working – yes. When in Rome do what Romans do.
Put it simply American view vs rest of the world’s view on “corruption” is different.
Won Joon,
Good observation. I agree with you. I like Park Jin. He is ocnfident, articulate, speaks his mind yet not too off base, and his recent visit to US was success. He did create some stir with the imbecile NO and his cronies this week when he gave interviews on what he learned and more importantly who from George W’s adminsitration met with him.
Duke:
These are called “grease payments,” i.e. bribes necessary to expedite “normal” procedural or bureaucratic process. Even for an American business operating overseas, this is legally allowed.
However, bribes that are paid to obtain and win contracts and businesses reach beyond mere “grease payment” levels and are expressly forbidden by what is known as Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Companies can be fined severely and the relevant employees prosecuted.