2 contenders fight toe to toe

The ruling Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye and her rival Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party shake hands ahead of the third televised debate in the KBS studios in Seoul, Sunday. / Korea Times photo by Son Yong-seok

Moon presses on; Park thrusts and parries in final TV dabate

The ruling Saenuri Party’s Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) fought head to head in the third televised presidential debate, Sunday night.

The debate on social issues came just ahead of the Dec. 19 election amid a close contest that put support for the two contenders within the statistical margins of error in recent polls.

Moon went on the offensive, while Park did her share of thrust and parry.

The minor leftist Unified Progressive Party (UPP)’s Lee Jung-hee, who worked as a spoiler in the previous debates, bowed out hours before, pitting the two key candidates against each other for the first time.

Moon tried to link Park with the failures of the current Lee Myung-bak administration, while Park lumped her opponent with the former Roh Moo-hyun government. Moon worked as Roh’s chief of staff.

Regarding the DUP candidate’s pledge to halve college tuition, Park said the Roh administration, including Moon, was responsible for the current soaring costs.

“During the Roh government, tuition at national universities rose 57.1 percent, while that of private ones went up 35.4 percent,” Park said. “You were responsible for tuition hikes. But now you are saying that you will cut tuition. I am wondering who’s going to trust a candidate like you.”

Moon claimed Park was not free from criticism because she was silent when the DUP urged the ruling Saenuri Party to team up to approve a bill to lower college tuition.

During the two-hour debate, Park said that Moon’s vision to counter the falling birthrate and ageing society was unrealistic, calling the DUP candidate irresponsible for promising to do something that was impossible.

The Saenuri Party candidate said Moon vowed to provide allowances to help families raise their children until they turn 12 and this would cost 7 trillion won annually. Park claimed this was unfeasible and said that Moon promised such populist policies without considering the financial resources available.

Moon answered he would seek child allowances as a long-term policy goal if elected.

During the one-on-one debate, the two candidates also clashed on their vision for education.

Park raised suspicion about Moon’s relationship with the liberal Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU).

“The KTU caused a stir after its members were affiliated with the former Democratic Labor Party as members. The union members’ activities were also controversial as they tried to instill certain political orientations when teaching students,” she said. “I understand that you had close relationship with the controversial group and some of your campaign staff were KTU members. I am wondering if you are going to continue to have a link with the union.”

Moon said he didn’t feel the need to cut ties with them, saying Park tried to paint the teachers’ group as radicals, something he said was baseless.

During the debate, they became emotional as they continued to attack each other and showed no signs of backing off. They traded barbs on each other’s vision on crime, science and technology, and education.

Park and Moon were given more time to discuss their agenda and criticize each other as Lee had announced her withdrawal just hours before the debate.

Both camps interpreted the leftist party candidate’s move as a positive sign to benefit their candidate. The Moon camp expressed hope that UPP supporters would back the DUP candidate without a vote split and this would boost Moon’s ratings.

The Park camp tried to downplay a DUP-UPP coalition, alleging that it was not a value alliance but a gathering of likeminded radicals. This came from the allegation that some UPP members were North Korean sympathizers and that they boycott paying respect to the national flag and singing the national anthem.

Polls released last Tuesday showed that Park was ahead of Moon within the margin of error.

Unveiling the results of surveys taken after Tuesday is a violation of the Election Law.

The DUP claims that the gap between Park and Moon has narrowed, revealing confidence that Moon could achieve a come-from-behind victory, with voters turning out to vote against the Saenuri Party. The ruling party dismissed this, saying this was just wishful thinking. <The Korea Times/Kang Hyun-kyung>