What kind of country would this be if politics had done its job back then? There are moments in history that invite such futile hypotheticals. The comprehensive economic plan drawn up by the governing Democratic Party in 1960 is one of them. The five-year development plan of the Second Republic under Prime Minister Chang Myon carried an ambitious vision — economy first, national land development, industrialization and the establishment of a free-market order. Political incompetence kept it from ever taking root, and its role passed instead to the military government's First Five-Year Economic Development Plan.
The worst affliction of the Democratic Party 66 years ago was self-destructive infighting. Launched as a unified opposition against the dictatorship of Rhee Syng-man and the Liberal Party, the party sank into an extreme confrontation between its New Faction and Old Faction and never found the momentum for political reform or economic development. The New Faction, built around the newcomer Chang Myon, tended to prize expertise and pragmatism, while the Old Faction of established mainstream figures led by Cho Pyong-ok put political principle first.
At first glance, today's Democratic Party of Korea looks much the same. The confrontation resembles the earlier one: a new force centered on President Lee Jae-myung that professes centrism and pragmatism, arrayed against an established camp made up largely of hardline former pro-democracy activists who invoke the cause of reform. At the August 17 national convention, dubbed a "party-splitting convention," a factional clash fought to the finish ended with Kim Min-seok of the new mainstream narrowly defeating Jung Chung-rae of the old mainstream. But the old mainstream took three of the supreme council seats to the new mainstream's two.
At the Democratic Party convention of November 27, 1959, the New Faction's Chang Myon edged out the Old Faction's Cho Pyong-ok by a narrow margin to become the party's representative supreme council member. That outcome produced a "dual power" structure in which the Old Faction of Cho — who the previous day had beaten Chang by three votes at the presidential and vice-presidential nomination convention to become the presidential nominee — shared control of the party with the New Faction. The party briefly took power after the April 19 Revolution, but internal strife that drove it toward a split, together with its own paralysis, gave a pretext for the military coup and left it branded an incompetent government.
Fortunately, the Democratic Party after the August 17 convention is not the party of that era. At Blue House dinners hosted by President Lee on the 19th and again on the 25th, the party stressed being "an even stronger one team." Jung, the defeated candidate of the old mainstream, calmed concerns about a rupture by emphasizing party unity: "We are comrades and brothers-in-arms who crossed the firing line of the December 3 insurrection and emergency martial law together."
The party's next steps should tighten internal cohesion while opening a path to national unity and bipartisan cooperation, and clearing the way for economic growth. For South Korea to make a great leap, the success of the three mega projects that Samsung, SK and others are pursuing with the government matters especially. President Lee has called for "going beyond a speed war to a blitzkrieg," but companies investing astronomical sums need firmer incentives. Most urgently, an exemption from the 52-hour workweek must be introduced through legislation on special mega-project zones. Nor can there be any hitch in relocating the military airbase to secure land for the Gwangju semiconductor cluster, or in plans to supply power and water. Only if the mega projects are pursued strictly from the standpoint of strengthening corporate competitiveness will they avoid ending up as a show that uses companies as props.
The three mega projects can gain real momentum only if national unity underpins them, and national unity is possible only if politics recovers its common sense. The immediate task is to head off the side effects that may arise from the revised Criminal Procedure Act, which strips prosecutors of their supplementary investigation authority. The revised law takes effect in October, and concern is growing that it will produce a stream of wronged victims, because there are few adequate means to prevent infringements of victims' rights and an erosion of the capacity to respond to crime. It would be closer to common sense for President Lee himself to draw a clear line on the withdrawal of indictments in cases involving him and on the various speculation about a second presidential term.
On housing, too, it must be recognized that excessively punitive taxation not only stokes public backlash and erodes President Lee's approval rating but can also amplify instability in the market. More consistent with market principles would be measures to revitalize private redevelopment and rebuilding projects, which account for 80% of housing supply in the greater Seoul area — easing restrictions on the transfer of union membership status, adjusting the share of rental units required in redevelopment projects and scrapping the levy that recaptures excess profits from rebuilding. The Democratic Party of 66 years ago was incompetent enough to squander the chances for both democracy and economic development. Today's Democratic Party must be different. How the Democratic Party government that follows the August 17 convention will be remembered rests entirely on the party's own choices.
