You don't represent us

Conservative "taegukgi" forces led by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party rally in Gwangwhamun Boulevard, downtown Seoul, Thursday, to demand the scandal-ridden Justice Minister Cho Kuk be arrested and President Moon Jae-in resign. The massive protests came on the heels of a candlelight rally in Moon's support days earlier in the legal town of Seocho, southern Seoul (photo below). The two camps are engaged in a numbers contest to show who represents the bigger slice of the nation, but in a country of more than 50 million, their combined number accounts for a maximum one tenth, immediately casting doubt on claims that they stand for the public's will. Korea Times

By Oh Young-jin

We need a political party to represent you and me, who are sitting out big demonstrations irrespective of flavors: conservative taegukki or progressive candlelight. (The name of the national flag is used because those in the category often carry the flags during the rallies, but I adopt the lower case to connote they do not represent the entire nation).

Our party would be a majority party for sure.

Those sympathetic to the progressive Moon Jae-in government flocked to the legal town of Seocho, southern Seoul, last week, to show support for the appointment of scandal-hit Cho Kuk as justice minister and press for the reform of the prosecution, Cho's supposed top agenda. They say the turnout was to the tune of 2 million.

Yonhap

Opposed to them are anti-government forces who filled Gwangwhamun Boulevard on the Oct. 3 National Foundation Day in protest, demanding that President Moon be taken down and that Cho be sacked. The organizers say their number was between 2.5 million or 3 million.

Combine the participants in both protests and the total would reach up to 5 million. Because our aging total population is about 50 million, our new party would represent the silent super-duper majority.

Immediately, this lopsided number would dampen the dispute over the size of their respective membership ― pro and anti. The two sides have been engaged in a numbers fight by a mere difference of hundreds of thousands. But we would beat both of them by tens of millions.

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Here is a small diversion. There is a cascade of poll results that pretend to know the real pulse of the people from surveys to which I bet only a small minority of the sampled people responded. One typical gimmick is a statistical margin of error that makes the result look trustworthy, when it is not. The rise of our "silent" party would dispel this and other unfounded claims because we are the real majority.

By one cardinal rule of democracy, as the true representative of the people's will, our party would like to push for these goals among other things.

First, we would restore the right for people to travel downtown hassle-free over the weekend. Our party would enable the people to meet their appointments on time, take a walk if they want and enjoy their way of life. We want to show foreign visitors that Korea is more than a scene of chaos they see on Saturday in central Seoul and that Korea is a mature society. Why?

For years now, downtown Seoul has turned into what resembles a war zone only with canons replaced by blaring sound loudspeakers spitting out political venom from protesters who advocate a variety of causes. One consolation is that they have so far rarely turned violent, a moot point of pride.

For now, it is taegugki forces that reign supreme, calling for the release of the imprisoned former President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached and imprisoned by the force of the candlelight warriors. Remember the Candlelight Revolution?

The taegugki units have been led by a marginal group of loyalists of the imprisoned Park and her father, dictator Park Chung-hee, but are seen morphing into the coalition of "anything but Moon" conservatives, being joined by the main opposition Liberty Korea Party.

Then, our party would hold the elected officials, those who claim they represent the people, responsible for dereliction of duty, which is the very cause for this political polarization or dichotomy, if you will.

The contract of the representative democracy we live in has it that we the people delegate our power to the elected officials, who in exchange run national affairs in our lieu so the people can go about their business in a kind of division of labor. Now the elected officials fail to deliver on their side of this deal, forcing the people to take to the street and do their elected officials' job as well.

It is a reversion to direct democracy, a time for the people to consider seriously whether they deserve their job and, if not, whether it is time for a sweeping cleanup a la France and Macron. The 42-year-old rose to power as candidate of neither of the prominent parties and built the majority En Marche in an electoral massacre of leftists and rightwing lawmakers.

Out of a rare show of generosity, which is rare in the current system, we the silent majority, as the true owners of the people's will, would give the existing parties and elected officials one last chance to get their act together. Or next time, there would be no mercy.

Oh Young-jin (foolsdie@gmail.com, foolsdie5@koreatimes.co.kr) is digital managing editor of The Korea Times.