Kickoff of primaries

Ideas, views, characters should be fully verified

With less than five months to go before the presidential election, two major parties have just begun their primaries. About a month later, both the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) will decide who will be their respective standard-bearers.

However, even provided the final round narrows down to a two-way race, the month-long primaries are likely to end up as yet more political dog and pony shows.

It seems all but apparent for too many involved ― voters, party members and even the contenders themselves ― who will represent the ruling and opposition camps in the end, based on opinion polls: Rep. Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri Party, and Ahn Cheol-soo, currently a third-party contender who is expected to soon formalize his bid for the top job.

Such a degradation of election politics into a sort of pop music chart shows that the nation’s system of electing leaders still has a long way to go.

Both Park, daughter of General-turned-President Park Chung-hee, and Ahn, a doctor-turned-computer software mogul-turned-professor, are the most popular with the people among over a dozen other contenders. Park is a five-term lawmaker who has continued to develop her political clout through brilliant performances in elections ― popularity contests ― but has yet to demonstrate an ability to become head of an administration.

Ahn’s potential as a politician and administrator is even harder to measure, because he has shown his ability mostly in terms of being a business professional, philanthropist and mentor for the younger generations.

Park, the likely candidate of the governing party, only agrees to a fight when she wants to fight and when it’s how she wants to fight. So she smothered a proposal from potential rivals for an open primary. The Saenuri Party leadership, which almost always follows Park’s intention, is shaping up the joint speech format to “praise” ― not criticize ― other contenders. Park even tries to limit the issues of discussion, refusing to talk about her father’s negative legacy.

The Saenuri Party says its speech format is to eliminate mudslinging and character assassination, and Park claims she wants to talk about the future, not the past. These are lame excuses. Presidential elections, as seen in the U.S., are a years-long process, during which every single aspect of a contender’s ideas, views and characters are exposed to public scrutiny. Park’s emphasis on the future sounds okay, but she must know a public official’s views about the past before saying what he or she envisions for the future.

Park’s desire to face the final round as the least damaged is understandable but unacceptable. It is a great disservice for, even a deception of, the electorate. Her one-sided decisions and intolerance of different views also foretell the kind of leadership she may show later.

The same can be said of Ahn, Park’s potential archenemy. He has appeared on a popular TV talk show, while other opposition contenders were engaged in fierce debate. Of course, Ahn, a non-DUP member, need not have taken part in it. If he is to join the DUP and use it as an organization through which he realizes his visions someday, it is not fair even if the politics of perception up until the final hours proves a more advantageous way of vote-gathering.

Elections are for picking good leaders. However, as with most other things in a democracy, the process is as important as the result, if not more so. <The Korea Times>

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