The internal feud in the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, augmented by its humiliating defeat in the April 29 by-elections, is not showing any sign of abating more than three weeks after the polls. Rather, it is escalating.
Party leader Moon Jae-in, who has refused to give into demands that he step down to take responsibility for the election loss, is at the center of the growing troubles. Under pressure, he suggested forming a reform panel, but unfortunately, this has only added fuel to the party’s notorious in-house rivalry.
Moon said the panel should be tasked with innovating the entire party and putting an end to the entrenched strife between his pro-Roh faction ― named after the late President Roh Moo-hyun ― and the nonmainstream faction ― called non-Rohs.
But the proposal backfired immediately, only damaging his already troubled leadership. The first setback came from Ahn Cheol-soo, as the popular ex-party chief rejected Moon’s proposal to head the reform panel.
This dealt a blow to Moon who wanted to enlist someone who is outside of the mainstream faction.
Ahn’s rejection led to talk of people like Cho Kuk, a liberal law professor at Seoul National University, and former Gyeonggi Province education superintendent Kim Sang-gon as alternatives. They, too, encountered factional resistance.
For instance, the party’s floor leader, Lee Jong-kul, voiced opposition to Cho, pointing to close ties between him and Moon. “Cho supported Moon in the past, and thus he is not suitable to head a reform panel whose mission should be doing away with the factional division,” Lee said.
With even the reform proposal triggering fresh factional disputes, Moon’s critics are putting the heat on him.
Kim Han-gil, who resigned as the party coleader along with Ahn after its crushing defeat in the parliamentary by-elections last July, is leading the offensive against Moon.
Kim accused Moon of holding on to his own presidential ambition and the “Pro-Roh hegemony” buttressed by factionalism. “Reform and innovation of the party should start with the liquidation of factionalism and abandonment of vested interests by the mainstreamers,” Kim said.
Moon did not budge, countering that the non-Roh old guards are the ones trying to preserve their vested interests, including the power to nominate candidates for parliamentary elections in the electorates they control.
This is hardly an attitude expected of the leader of a party that suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of a ruling party that had been struggling with a major corruption scandal.
It would be strange if such a hardline stance did not draw backlash even from the relatively neutral party members. One of the latest challenges came from a group of NPAD lawmakers who are in their first or second terms.
They said in a statement that the party must set an end to the factional confrontation between the pro-Rohs and non-Rohs as its vital task and achieve unity by any means.
As the junior lawmakers urged, the first, most essential thing for Moon to do is publicly pledge he would not rely on the pro-Roh members any longer and reconstruct the party. If not, the fledgling talk of a possible split of the party would gain strength.
