Editorial: PPP's Turn Toward Its Base Leaves Party Without a Future

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk said at a press conference marking his first year in office on the 26th that he would "further expand the sovereignty of party members and fill the party with people who know how to fight." The stated aim is to sharpen the party's ability to resist what it calls the abuses of a dominant ruling party, but the emphasis appears to fall on rallying hard-line supporters rather than on reforming the party or broadening its appeal. That is cause for concern. Jang's repeated insistence on pushing through direct elections for district chapter chairs is especially certain to deepen the controversy, because it is likely to become a channel through which the leader's faction, with its stronger organization, and hard-line members seize control of local chapters.

Jang has consistently veered too far right, clinging to claims of election fraud. He has also imposed heavy disciplinary penalties only on members outside his faction, giving rise to the phrase "cross Jang and you die." If figures billed as "people who know how to fight" — in effect Jang's own foot soldiers — come to dominate the party further, the People Power Party could be reduced to a personal vehicle for its leader. That is precisely why members outside the leadership faction are moving toward what they call an anti-Jang coalition. What the People Power Party needs now is not a contest over ideological purity that invites its own isolation. It is to put forward policy alternatives capable of embracing moderates and unaffiliated voters, and to remake itself as a rational conservative party. A politics that looks only to its most fervent supporters cannot hope to check the failures of the government and the ruling party, let alone win recognition as a party fit to govern. If the first words of his second year as leader read as a declaration of one-man rule rather than of reform, the party's bleak future is already settled.

The political world as a whole should also reflect on the fact that Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok stepped down the same day, saying the reform plan he presented after the local elections "failed to win support." The Democratic Party's new leadership is calling for unity, but it too must squarely confront the reality that the president's approval rating has fallen to 38.9%, dropping below 40% for the first time since he took office. Unless it fully overhauls policies that fall short of public expectations — pressure on the chief justice to resign, revisions to the Criminal Procedure Act and real estate regulations — a recovery in support will remain out of reach.

Party members are the roots of a political party, but they cannot come before the public. Both the governing and opposition parties must move beyond hard-line fandom and the walls of their own factions and open their doors to livelihood issues and moderate voters. Neither turning a party into a personal fiefdom in the name of member sovereignty nor steamrolling in the name of harmony between party and government should be forgotten as something the public will ultimately judge.