Politics is about ending the civil war

This is no time for a leisurely fight between the rival parties.

Lee Ha-kyungThe author is a senior columnist of the JoongAng Ilbo. In his magnum opus, “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” 18th-century English historian Edward Gibbon blamed Christianization for the fall of the empire. At first, Romans suppressed Christians and upon conversion to Christianity, they ruthlessly disavowed and razed all other religions. His book was declared “pagan” and banned by the Catholic Church for two centuries.

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s change has been as dramatic as Rome’s. As prosecutor general, he served as the point man under the Moon Jae-in administration and hunted down conservative forces. The prosecutors under Yoon’s command sent former presidents, the Supreme Court chief justice, chief of the National Intelligence Service, government ministers and lawmakers to prison. Yoon was jettisoned when he pointed his sword at the sitting power and stripped of commanding authority after he started looking into former Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s family corruption.

Upon retiring from office, the popular and upright prosecutor was courted by the conservative People Power Party (PPP) and elected to presidency. He used the same weapon against the opposition. Liberal heavyweights Lee Jae-myung, Cho Kuk and Song Young-gil all endured endless investigations, raids and trials.

Rigidity is the biggest drawback of the Yoon administration. Upon facing a deadlock in its policy or campaign, the government enforced compliance through investigation instead of persuasion and compromise. The president has been uncompromising toward others except for his wife. The country is being dominated by the “rule by law” instead of the “rule of law.” The virtues of empathy and pity gave way to self-righteousness.

Draconian policies invited resistance. The plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota that drew overwhelming public support at the beginning faced die-hard defiance from the medical community. When the sharp budgetary cut in government spending on research and development (R&D) under the campaign of rooting out self-serving cartels in the science field caused backlash, the government suddenly came up with the idea of exempting the preliminary feasibility study required for big-budget R&D projects. The president, who is the commander in chief of the military, is even losing faith among soldiers for allegedly getting upset by the military investigation on the death of a Marine during a rescue mission last summer.

The majority Democratic Party (DP) commanding 175 seats in the 300-member legislature also plots a hazardous course. Its leader Lee Jae-myung — dubbed as a shadow president — vows to press ahead with the lawmaking process as speedy as the “Mongolian cavalry.” His party is out to push for a special counsel probe into the Marine’s death and an extensive independent investigation on the allegations around first lady Kim Keon-hee. The DP leader even plans to change the party’s constitution to serve his personal interest. The Rebuilding Korea Party led by the former justice minister is readying a motion on a special investigation of Han Dong-hoon — the PPP’s former interim leader and the former prosecutor who went after Cho.

The political district of Yeouido has turned into a battleground. Does the DP leader really know the source of the strength of the Mongol Empire? Gibbon praised the Mongols for their religious tolerance. “It is the region of Zingis that best deserves our wonder and applause … Various systems and concord were taught and practiced within the precincts of the same camp,” he wrote. If Lee wants to be a “real” president, he must cooperate with the government on public and security affairs and prioritize unity and tolerance.

Many are floating the idea of revising the Constitution to replace the single five-year presidency with a two-term four-year presidency. Constitutional amendments can be a better option than pressing for a second presidential impeachment to align the country with the likes of Latin America. But the move must not be motivated by the ambition to attain power. Japan studied European constitutions for 10 years to write up its modern constitutional monarchy. Korea drafted out its first Constitution in three weeks. The parliamentary system was ditched for the presidential system overnight. The hastily-born mighty presidency crashes with the zeitgeist of respecting diverse values and it has fixated on political conflicts.

At this rate, the political vendettas will go on forever with one unqualified party changing hands to another unqualified one. But our security reality cannot afford such an implosion. Nuclear-armed North Korea, emboldened by support by China and Russia, has already postured itself into a low-intensity war. It sent hundreds of rubbish-filled balloons across the border. What will happen if the balloons carry biological materials? If North Korea aims its GPS jamming attacks to the sky instead of the sea, Korea’s air traffic will come to an immediate stop. If it launches a hybrid warfare of blending conventional, irregular and cyberwarfare, Korea would become a regular conflict hotbed like the Middle East. If Korea is labeled as a warring country upon the wishes of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the South’s credit rating will sink. This is no time for a leisurely fight between the rival parties.

In “The Laws”(dialogue), Plato wrote, “There is nothing more cruel than civil war.” The rivaling parties must immediately stop the civil war to save public livelihood and security from slipping into catastrophe.