No self-reflection whatsoever, as expected

Lee must do some deep soul searching before it’s too late.

Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung ferociously attacked the Yoon Suk Yeol administration in his New Year’s press conference Wednesday. He claimed that the country faces four major crises, with people’s livelihoods, inter-Korean relations, demographics and democracy, because the conservative government has been engrossed in “killing its political enemies.” Lee vowed to overcome the crises “originating from the government” by winning the April 10 parliamentary elections.

But the DP leader must first ask himself what he did to help overcome the four crises over the past 18 months as head of the majority party. The public only remembers all the negative developments in the party — mobilizing lawmakers to defend Lee from his own judicial risks and railroading one controversial bill after another only for political gains, not to mention corruptions like the cash handouts to elect the new party head. And yet, Lee became a legislator three months after his defeat in the 2022 presidential election and was elected party leader two months later, an unprecedented feat for a political leader.

The majority party under Lee’s helm repeatedly voted down the prosecution’s requests for arrest warrants for DP lawmakers suspected of corruption. The party also passed a number of controversial bills aimed at mandating government compensations for lowered grain prices and empowering labor unions. Despite the apparent need for a presidential veto, Lee pressed ahead with excessive legislation solely based on its majority status.

The DP under Lee’s control saw its democratic values vanish over and over. Strict party votes took the place of heated debates. In the meantime, a group of radical supporters of Lee even threatened DP lawmakers who were not loyal to Lee. As a result, legislators not friendly to Lee left the party to create a new party, only helping Lee privatize the party further.

The morality of the DP under Lee’s reign has hit rock bottom. The court sentenced Rep. Youn Kwan-suk to two years in jail for his involvement in handing cash envelopes to his colleagues to help a member get elected as party leader. But Lee keeps mum. How could he accept the ruling and apologize on Youn’s behalf when he himself was also indicted for many charges?

Given President Yoon’s steadfast refusal to cooperate with the opposition over national governance, one cannot hold Lee alone accountable for the political debacle. But Lee must take responsibility for the collapse of morality for the majority party that contributed to the democratization of the country over the past six decades. Lee must do some deep soul searching before it’s too late.