Moon’s plea falls on Ahn’s deaf ears

Park Geun-hye, in the left photo, the presidential candidate of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party, speaks to a crowd outside Daejeon Station, Tuesday, the first day of official presidential campaigning. Moon Jae-in, the opposition contender from the Democratic United Party (DUP), kicked off his day addressing voters at the Sasang Express Bus Terminal in Busan. / Yonhap

As a presidential contender, Ahn Cheol-soo arrived with a bang and went out with a bigger one.

Several days has passed since the computer software guru and influential public speaker withdrew from the race after failing to merge candidacies with fellow opposition challenger Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party (DUP). Comments from remaining candidates and headlines from newspapers suggest Ahn never really left.

While the presidential race has shaped up as a dual between Moon and Park Geun-hye, candidate of the conservative ruling party, Saenuri, neither seems to be controlling their own destiny.

The outcome of the Dec. 19 vote will come down to how they manage to absorb the disgruntled and disillusioned supporters of Ahn, whose track record as a successful businessman made him popular with conservative voters as well as liberals.

Moon continues to be desperate in his pitch to Ahn. It was Park who had been favored in a three-way competition and DUP officials are the first to say their candidate doesn’t have much of a shot at Cheong Wa Dae without Ahn’s blessing.

“I will never forget Ahn’s beliefs, tears and his heart. I am determined to deliver on the promise of new politics together with Ahn,’’ Moon said during a speech in Busan Tuesday.

“We will build a national alliance of people who calls for new politics and a new government. I will be the president who opens a new era. The DUP will change and reform itself endlessly until people are convinced.’’

There had been great interest over whether Ahn would attend the disbanding of his presidential camp that was scheduled for Tuesday. However, the ceremony was postponed after a man who claimed himself as an Ahn backer threatened to commit suicide near the camp’s Seoul building on Monday. Camp officials said Ahn agreed to the need of a “cooling period’’ for his more emotional supporters.

It remains to be seen whether Ahn would be wholehearted in his support of Moon when he does come out of his mini-hiatus. Observers of the former independent candidate believe it would be best for his personal interest to weather the presidential election unscathed before forming his own political party around the by-elections next April.

Recent opinion polls show that Moon has been managing to absorb only about half of the votes that would have went to Ahn. About 20 percent of Ahn’s supporters prefer Park over Moon, while the rest remains undecided.

DUP officials all but confess that the party will be hanging on Ahn’s every word when he reappears in the public. The DUP is currently in the process of overhauling Moon’s campaign team in hopes of luring Ahn and his associates into a joint election committee.

However, it would be impossible to launch the renewed campaign team anytime soon if ever. His campaign officials remain coy on whether Ahn or his key strategists will accept the invitation for a visible role at Moon’s camp.

“Nothing has been decided about Ahn’s role at Moon’s camp and all that’s out there is speculation. The disbanding ceremony will likely take place within the week,’’ said Hong Suk-bin, Ahn’s spokesman, denying a report by a vernacular daily that Ahn has decided not to participate.

During the talks to merge their candidacies, Moon and Ahn looked like men who see face to face but never eye to eye as they sparred continuously over the method to choose the single candidate. This dragged liberal voters into a quagmire of indecision and had them questioning concerned over the chemistry between the two.

Ahn only stepped out before his talks with Moon completely fell through ahead of the Nov. 26 nomination deadline. In announcing his exit, a teary Ahn declared Moon as the single candidate, but was rather reluctant in supporting him, claiming that his dreams for new politics was temporarily “folded.’’

“We couldn’t have come this far without Ahn. We do believe he will come out and support Moon and we tend to give him all the time he needs to regroup. There is about 20 days left until polling days and it could even be better if Ahn could give us a late-game boost rather than an early one as opinion polls show the gap between Moon and Park to be narrow,’’ said a senior DUP lawmaker.

“ Ahn’s supporters are emotionally bitter now, but we do believe more of them will move toward Moon once their minds are cleared. May be it will take one or two weeks. That’s why the `PK’ region (Busan and South Gyeongsang Province) is important as Ahn’s support was strong there and this gives us opportunity. That’s precisely why Moon started his campaign schedule there.’’

He went on to say that it would be best for Ahn’s political future to exert his influence in the presidential election and be seen as the man who engineered Moon’s victory.

But don’t expect Ahn to flex a newly-inked Moon tattoo when he reappears in front of cameras. It’s hard to imagine his support of Moon being something more than a gesture when he would be reluctant to share the responsibility in the case that Moon fails to Park.

Ahn talked endlessly about new politics. He also tried to convince the public that new politics can only go through him.

Even during his talks to merge candidacies with Moon, Ahn stubbornly insisted the competition to be played on his rules and his rules only. That seemed as a roundabout way of asking Moon “why can’t you quit?’’

DUP built Moon’s campaign on the slogan of preventing the conservatives from retaking the country’s most powerful office. Ahn’s goal was all about him being the country’s next president. The difference between the two approaches was rather profound as Moon found out the hard way.

In a radio interview, Kim Bu-gyeom, one of Moon’s senior campaign associates, expressed hopes of a Moon-Ahn union but also admitted that the two men are destined to go separate ways after the election.

“We have to accept that Ahn will be forming his own political party after the presidential elections. There is no other way to meet the passion of his supporters,’’ Kim said. <The Korea Times/Kim Tong-hyung>