select * from tbl_news where devision_sn = 1475 and devision = 2 국내뉴스코너
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  Learning Times> News Corner > 국내뉴스코너
 
  Date : 2012-09-04
Self-destroying opposition

DUP’s basis is in danger without unity, agenda
 
The main opposition Democratic United Party has long suffered from the lack of two vital elements during elections: star candidates and eye-catching platforms. The DUP’s dream of finding the two through its presidential primaries that started Friday is now shattered because of poor management and intraparty division. 
 
Both the party leadership, which pushed ahead with primaries ignoring serious glitches in the “mobile vote” system, and three non-mainstream contenders, who boycotted provincial nomination events by exaggerating a technical loophole to intentionally unfair management, are equally problematic. 
 
The largest opposition party has a long, tumultuous way to go even without these disappointing episodes of administrative mishap and factional strife to effectively compete with the two frontrunners in approval ratings _ Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party, and a potential third-party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo. The DUP’s hope was to maximize the “convention effect” through the primaries and create a single opposition candidacy by unifying with Ahn later.  
 
This strategy got off on the wrong foot. It is urgent for party leaders to accept the candidates’ grievances, and for runners, to go back to the race. At stake is not just the election but also the party’s basis for existence.
 
Come to think of it, however, the DUP, the leadership and its critics alike, ought to recall why it has been so anxious about the “event effect” of the primaries, which are more about appearances than substance. The reason is clear: the party itself has little content other than ostensible forms. The left-of-center party has presented few policies that can differentiate itself from the right-of-center governing party, as the latter has boldly moved toward the left under the initiative of candidate Park. 
 
So much so many older and poorer voters have come to support the conservative ruling party instead of the relatively more progressive opposition. This means the liberal party has lost its traditional grounds for differentiated election platforms, caught off guard by the preemptive bid of the conservative rivals. In a worst-case scenario, the DUP will have no other option but to usher in Ahn along with his election pledges if _ that’s a big if now _ the computer software mogul-turned-college dean deigns to do so. Would people call it a political party _ much less a main opposition _ then?
 
Before it is too late, the DUP should be reborn as a party standing on an unequivocal platform aimed at mid- to lower-class voters. This is especially crucial because the leftist Unified Progressive Party has also crumbled for similar blunders of election mismanagement and factional splits. Otherwise, 2012 will go down in history as the year of the demise of progressive parties in Korea.
 
Korea’s middle class is rapidly disappearing amid economic polarization. The DUP’s slogan should be to restore the lost middle class with action plans that are both bolder and more practicable than the governing party’s. In this era of escalating tension in Northeast Asia, a candidate is also needed who can make Korea better compete with China and Japan through cooperation with North Korea.
 
If it tries hard enough, the DUP can find ways to get out of the current crisis and resurge. Some preconditions for this are finding the will to do so and bringing unity within its ranks. Preventing it is only a deep sense of defeatism gripping the DUP.
 
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