It is not clear when they stopped, but now reporters rarely cover Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young's "visits to scenes of people's livelihood." It's because there is nothing important to report. Chung visited a homeless camp in Seoul's Eunpyeong district on May 7, but most reporters ignored it. The same morning, Chung issued two press releases, "Marking Parents' Day" and "After the First Worship Ceremony for My Mother." They contained stories about Mr. Chung's life, but that was all. They showed no sense of tension regarding the impending May 31 regional elections.
To make things worse, Chin Dae-je, an Uri Party candidate for the Gyeonggi Province governorship, was recently charged by the Gyeonggi Election Commission. The commission maintains that his TV speech on the party platforms major policies of April 25 violated the election law prohibiting a candidate’s direct vote gathering activities. The Chin camp denied that his speech was verified by the central party beforeh. If this is true, it means that the party itself is not functioning normally.
On May 4, Chung, speaking to a press conference, urged voters to focus their wrath on the Grand National Party, saying, "It is really some kind of magic that bribery scandals haven't affected the approval ratings of the party." He, however, was mistaken in his focus: he should have asked why the approval rating of his own party has stagnated. Uri Party's Seoul mayoral candidate Kang Keum-sil has said, "The biggest enemy is inside us." Her observations are correct.
What is the reason the Uri Party is mired in lethargy? First, it is because of Chairman Chung's lack of leadership. Currently, there is no group of loyal Chung Dong-young followers in his own party. Only Rep. Kim Han-gil, the floor leader of the Uri Party, Chung Se-gyun, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy, and Rep. Lee Kang-rae have formed a partnership with Chung. Lawmakers Yeom Dong-yeon and Lee Kwang-jae are "Roh Moo-hyun's men."
A significant number of senior officials with passion and ability have left the party and younger officials can't fill the vacuum. The Uri Party doesn't have enough strategic advisers. The dualistic structure of the party, with both a chairman and floor leader, has worsened the situation. The chairman's power was strengthened at a party convention in February, but the Policy Planning Committee is still under the influence of the floor leader. Therefore, the chairman cannot flex any political power, even if he wanted to. Chung is perhaps busying himself with tours of people's livelihood because his hands are tied otherwise.
"The biggest problem currently faced by the party is a loss of confidence," a leading ‘power lawmaker’ observed on condition of anonymity. "The situation was the same in 2002, but they had Roh Moo-hyun at that time. Today's situation is quite serious."
Some observed that after the ruling Uri Party accomplished its founding goal- political reform-to a certain degree, it didn't set up a goal to accomplish a social democratic reform as the next step. In other words, the party lacks a strong philosophy. More fundamentally, some mentioned the substantial limit of domestic political parties to be able to speak for different ideologies and social classes.
These days, Uri Party lawmakers console themselves with the vague and irresponsible expectation that after the local elections, they will surely have the opportunity to 'rock the political stage.' Meanwhile, they seem to have already given up on the local elections.
Uri Party Mired in Lethargy |
