South Korea’s Liberals: Destined to ‘Struggle,’ Not to Rule?

South Korea’s liberal-progressive party, New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), is its own worst enemy. This will come as little surprise to many supporters of liberal-progressive parties in democracies the world over. Parties of the left (e.g., British Labour) are notorious for their factional in-fighting and intra-party feuds. There’s a reason for the left’s inability to stand united behind a coherent political program: Liberal-progressive parties aren’t predisposed to rule. Struggle is integral to their identity and defines their modus operandi.

Reflecting on Jeremy Corbyn’s unexpected ascent to the Labour leadership in Britain, Martin Kettle writes in The Guardian that it would be foolish to expect Corbyn to unite the faction-ridden party behind a coherent political program. Whether Corbyn actually supports “Brexit” (the proposed exit of the British from the European Union) or has discovered a sense of pragmatism with his newfound power, Kettle isn’t sure. But he is decidedly more certain that Labour is likely to suffer politically from an incoherent and divided party message.

Channeling the work of political scientist Henry Drucker on Labour’s “sense of collective ethos,” Kettle argues that Labour is “more comfortable as a party of opposition, sustained by a sense of betrayal, than as a party of government.” Struggle, in other words, is the party’s default position.

Korean analyst Christopher Green, reading these same works, was prompted to tweet to me the following: “‘@labour is party animated more by sense of collective ethos than commitment to political program.’ Familiar, @StevenDenney86? [@NPAD_Kr].”

Familiar, indeed. Struggle is what binds Britain’s Labour to South Korea’s NPAD – even if little to nothing else does. The traditions from which the two parties derive their respective identities are very different, but “struggle” is one crucial commonality.

The issue of party infighting and “factional struggle” (as the media often describes it) within the liberal-progressive NPAD has been a hot-button topic in South Korean media for some time now. Concerns over internal divisions were accentuated after the 2014 National Assembly by-elections, which saw NPAD lose 11 of 15 contested constituencies. Matters were only made worse this year when the party lost all four seats up for reelection, including in its traditional stronghold of Gwangju, South Jeolla Province.

The winner of the Gwangju race, Chun Jung-bae, is a former opposition politician-turned-independent. His departure from the liberal-progressive party is a microcosm of the main opposition’s Labour-like tendencies. Rather than support the center and chairman Moon Jae-in, Chun abdicated and ran as an independent. The center cannot hold, and Chun would rather wage a “struggle” for his home base of Honam (North and South Jeolla) than show support for a party he apparently doesn’t believe in. He has even gone so far as to suggest he might form a “New Honam Party.” (Chun has since reaffirmed his plan to establish a new reform party in 2016, but remains unclear as to what, exactly, this party will represent.)

The latest example of liberal-progressive party woes is Moon’s announcement of a vote of confidence on his leadership. In an effort to shore up support and establish some sort of mandate to rule, Moon signaled his intention to hold an internal vote and a public poll on his leadership. Moon withdrew his plan to hold the vote after facing pushback from party members, who no doubt fear that such a move would further accentuate internal divisions.

Moon, a former chief of staff to late President Roh Moo-hyun, represents what is often called the “pro-Roh” faction. Facing off against him is the minority opposition, sometimes called the “pro-Kim” (for late President Kim Dae-jung) or “anti-Roh” faction. One might also discern a Honam faction, too, led by Chun Jung-bae, although Chun is considered by some to be a latter-day DJ or a DJ-like figure (with “DJ” also a reference to Kim Dae-jung).

Confused yet? So is the electorate.

While NPAD languishes, the ruling Saenuri benefits. The latest Real Meter public opinion poll (from mid-September) shows 41.6 percent support for Saenuri and a meager 26.6 percent support for NPAD. While there is a significant number of people who fit under the “undecided” category, NPAD’s “struggle” ethos is not likely to resonate with voters worried about job prospects and concerns over South Korea’s export woes.

Despite a number of administrative and political blunders, the ruling Saenuri Party has not come under concentrated political attack. The opposition NPAD has yet to wage a systematic political campaign to take advantage of the arguably poor handling of the MERS crisis, the debacle surrounding the sinking of the Sewol ferry, and a string of unfulfilled policy promises, notably promises to significantly strengthen welfare policies, especially for the elderly.

Those following domestic politics in South Korea will find no shortage of verbal or written denunciations of the Park Geun-hye government and ruling Saenuri. But there is little substance to these rhetorical volleys. NPAD, like Britain’s Corbyn, may have little interest in governing, and more interest in playing the role of opposition. Such is the nature of the left, it seems, and everyone is worse off for it.