New leadership faces complicated challenges ahead of presidential race


The new leadership of the main opposition Democratic United Party has finally begun to take shape upon the election of Rep. Park Jie-won as the new floor leader on Friday.

If Park’s bid to become the next floor leader was tough, the challenges ahead will be even tougher, observers said, as he needs to regroup the factionalized party voices, realign party polices and advocate for a presidential candidate to go up against the ruling Saenuri Party.

“The DUP will need to show voters a unified front through a presidential candidate upheld by policies with a clear direction,” said Yoon Seong-yi, political professor at Kyung Hee University.

The DUP is likely to accelerate its preparation for the Dec. 19 presidential election once the rest of the new leadership, including the chairperson, is formed next month.

“(Our) work in the parliament must satisfy the people while the opposition forces must align with a powerful leadership in order for (us) to seize the next administration,” Park said during a forum on Thursday.

The former confidant of late President Kim Dae-jung has touted his experience as a floor leader in 2010 and his recent guidance in the party’s offensives against the ruling Saenuri as his strength that represents good leadership.

Externally, the DUP, along with other minor opposition parties, are expected to lock horns with the ruling party in forming the standing committees for the incoming 19th National Assembly, during which they are also expected to push for hearings and special audits of the scandals surrounding close aides of President Lee Myung-bak.

Internally, Park must regain the credibility he lost upon revelations that he made a backdoor agreement with former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan to share the two top leadership posts.

Most imminently, Park, along with the new leadership, must prepare the rules for the presidential candidate primary. The DUP has openly proposed the Saenuri Party join them in positively considering a fully-open primary where a presidential candidate is chosen 100 percent by citizens without party affiliation.

But realizing it would prove to be more complicated due to differing circumspections by each potential candidate, Yoon explained.

The DUP, which lost to the Saenuri Party in the April 11 general elections, also faces the need to reassemble its murky policy direction.

“The general elections showed that the simple anti-Lee Myung-bak administration approach cannot win over the voters,” Yoon said.

The DUP has faced criticisms for its murky ideological standing, as it faltered between the radical progressive policies chanted by the Unified Progressive Party with more conservative voices mindful of urban swing voters.

Park, in the meantime, underscored that his priority was to regroup the party to seek a competitive presidential candidate. There have been talks of an immediate need for the party to align with software mogul-turned-professor Ahn Chul-soo, who is considered one of the key potential players in the highly contested presidential race.

“It will be good if Professor Ahn would join the DUP right then and now and vie in the primary. However, although the DUP will have the door opened, there is no need to force (him),” Park said in his victory speech on Friday.

Park entered politics as a proportional lawmaker in the 14th Assembly in 1992. Famously-known as the closest aide to the late President Kim Dae-jung, Park served in several key administrative posts under President Kim and eventually earned the nickname “eternal chief of staff.”

Park’s political career briefly went downhill in the next Roh Moo-hyun government due to his role in the covert delivery of funds to North Korea in return for improved inter-Korean relations. Park returned to politics as an independent lawmaker in 2008. He won his latest and third parliamentary term in the April 11 general elections.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)