There was once a certain president.
He was a high school graduate. He was a day laborer on construction sites. He studied while working and passed the bar exam, rising to become a judge, a minister, and finally president—but he lived his entire life outside the mainstream.
Even after he became president, that man was looked down upon by the mainstream!
A mere prosecutor, in front of the entire nation, questioned him for being only a high school graduate. The opposition sneered that the next president ought to be someone who had gone to college.
And yet the mainstream of the Minguk Party, who should have condemned such petty personal attacks, instead thrust the cross of impeachment upon him, while the opposition nailed him to that cross and tried to drag down the president of a nation without even a just cause.
Opposition for opposition’s sake!
Suppression bordering on contempt!
A ruling party more vicious than the opposition!
My respected fellow citizens, and my beloved comrades of the party!
For the sake of harmony within the party, I have covered this up until now. But the time has come to set history right. Now, let us make it clear.
Who was it?
Because he was from Honam, because he was a high school graduate, because he was a YS kid! Because he had no support base within the party! Who was it, I ask you, who seized a place in the mainstream and looked down on this president his entire life?!
My beloved comrades of the party!
I still cannot forget the curses that candidate Lee Chan-ho hurled at President Roh Moo-hyun! I cannot forget how many wounds he inflicted during the unification process! I still cannot forget how much the mainstream forces within the party tormented the Participatory Government!
Can such a man truly inherit the spirit of Roh Moo-hyun?
Now, I ask you to judge! If you remember the same history that I do, if what we need is truly someone who can inherit the spirit of Roh Moo-hyun!
Then do not support someone who flits from nest to nest like a migratory bird! Support the very man who has silently guarded our progressive camp all this time!
I, Park Hyeon-seop, have never once betrayed progressivism!
*
The saying that there is nothing to eat at a famous feast does not apply in politics.
Our political world has always delighted the eyes and ears of the people with performances that exceeded expectations... or perhaps fell beneath them.
This time was no different.
The Minguk Party’s Gangwon National Convention, where only a light war of nerves had been expected, announced its splendid opening with a brawl from the very first event.
“Park Hyeon-seop! Park Hyeon-seop! Park Hyeon-seop!”
“Lee Chan-ho, you bastard, are you even human?! How dare you brazenly lift your head here!”
“Let’s cut them all out while we’re at it! Those mainstream bastards who tormented our president during the Participatory Government! Let’s clean them all out!”
Park Hyeon-seop was the first to set fire to the already sensitive atmosphere within the party.
It began when he brought up Prime Minister Lee Chan-ho’s past conduct. The prevailing sentiment in the Minguk Party now was guilt toward the Participatory Government and sorrow over its tragic death, and Prime Minister Lee Chan-ho’s past conduct was, inevitably, rather uncomfortable.
As soon as the speech ended, the convention hall turned into a gladiatorial arena. Supporters from both sides even engaged in hand-to-hand combat, marking it down as the worst party convention to unfold in twenty-first-century history.
[An Opposition Too Cold... A Ruling Party Too Hot... A Polarized Atmosphere—Is This All Right?]
[Shouting and Brawls Break Out Everywhere After Candidate Park Hyeon-seop’s Speech!]
[The Convention Was Only a Preview... Party Lawmakers Split After the First Event]
[Assemblyman Kim: “Candidate Park Hyeon-seop’s Petty Factionalism Left Me Appalled!”]
[Assemblyman Choi: “Candidate Lee Chan-ho’s Chilling Past Remarks Left Me Appalled Too!”]
[Assemblyman Park: “Why Has a Convention Meant to Present a Vision for the Future Been Tripped Up by the Past Again?”]
[Assemblyman Hong: “The Past Is the Nearest Future—The Person Responsible Must Untie the Knot Himself!”]
The local war that began in Gangwon-do quickly turned into an all-out war in Yeouido.
After the first convention, lawmakers continued their war of words, and they threw sincere punches at one another so viciously it was hard to believe they belonged to the same family.
It was a nasty business.
After the convention, there would still be conflicts over nominations; after the nominations, the presidential primary remained. What on earth were they supposed to do? The ruling party’s national convention thus spiraled into unknowable chaos, but at least there was one thing they could feel at ease about.
[Only Flies Buzzing Around the Opposition... Most of the Convention Hall Empty]
[Again This General Election Too? Convention Hall Filled Only with Asphalt Protesters...]
The opposition still had no chance of taking power...
*
“If everyone is here, let’s begin the report.”
Lee Chan-ho’s campaign camp.
The staffers, having finished the first fierce battle in Gangwon-do, gathered in one place with heavy faces. But the face of the man who had brought the polling figures was not bright.
“The gap... has widened even more. Internal party polling and delegate support each fell by five percentage points, and general polling also dropped by around three percentage points.”
“Who’s supposed to understand it if you say it like that? So what’s the combined figure?”
“Roughly a fourteen-point gap...”
Not even breathing could be heard in the conference room.
Park Hyeon-seop and Lee Chan-ho had already started with a daunting gap of ten percentage points from the beginning. If the convention was a hundred-meter dash, Park Hyeon-seop had started fifty meters ahead.
So the camp’s strategy had been to steal two percent—two percentage points of Park Hyeon-seop’s support—each week, then write a come-from-behind story in the final, third week... but that goal had been shattered in the very first week.
By raising Park Hyeon-seop’s past conduct, he had lit a fire in the hearts of the support base, widening the gap with Lee Chan-ho to fourteen percentage points instead.
Now, even if they stole three percent of support each week, they could not guarantee the result.
“Prime Minister, we really can’t just leave this alone!”
When everyone was sinking into despair, one man burst out in indignation.
“There are rules even in politics! Candidate Park has crossed the line!”
As if that were a signal, everyone rose up.
“That’s right! What era does he think this is, digging up graves? If we’re going to talk like that, didn’t the Participatory Government fight with Donggyo-dong too? Which administration passed the special investigation into North Korea and sent DJ’s closest aides to prison?”
“I can’t take this! Politics always involves processes and conflict. What are we supposed to do if they divide all of that into a simple good-versus-evil framework?!”
“Let’s fight back too! This pro-Roh hegemony filling the party is so suffocating I can’t live with it!”
The staffers were furious.
Was that president supposed to have lived like Jesus? If one examined the details, there had been mistakes, and there had been corruption. They had only covered it up because they had clearly seen what would happen if that Pandora’s box were opened.
But if they kept sanctifying him like this, and if they used that political legacy to turn every opposing faction into villains... then it was a different story.
They had no choice but to open Pandora’s box.
“Everyone, stop.”
As the mood grew rough, Lee Chan-ho opened his mouth.
“What’s gotten into you all, when you’re seasoned players? You knew this would become a mudslinging fight.”
“There are still limits. How could he bring up even that issue?!”
“That’s the kind of people they are. Nothing good comes from getting worked up over this. Heh-heh.”
Though he said that, in truth Lee Chan-ho was the one whose anger was boiling the most.
The conflict with the Participatory Government was Lee Chan-ho’s greatest Achilles’ heel. Even during his appointment as prime minister, he had suffered fierce checks within the party because of this issue. Park Hyeon-seop, knowing this weakness, was persistently targeting only the places that hurt.
But he must not flare up. The moment he lost his temper and snapped, the convention would become his grave. Having lived twenty years as an outsider, he had become an expert when it came to this kind of instinct.
“If anything, it’s fortunate. Once the election became close, this was an issue that would have come up at least once anyway. It’s also the most fatal one for me.”
“Still...”
“Our Candidate Park revealed his hidden card too early from the start. That’s actually good. Our floor support is right now, and from here on, let’s just take three percent each week.”
There was no time to waste fuming.
The second convention would be in Gwangju, the capital of the Minguk Party.
He intended to use that second convention to emphasize his activist career and crush Park Hyeon-seop, who had done nothing but study.
“Gangwon is difficult territory for our party anyway. There aren’t many organizational votes either. The real history is Honam. We can start catching up from there.”
The staffers also swallowed down their anger.
Gwangju and Honam were places where Lee Chan-ho’s loyal forces were considerable. There were still many chances left to turn the tables.
“Chief Kim, what’s the schedule from here?”
“Yes, before the second convention, there will be one official debate.”
“The one two days from now?”
“Yes. But judging by the atmosphere, it looks as if they’ll try to break through with camp logic again. According to the campaign debate team’s predictions, another attack over the National Pension Reform Bill is likely... That camp will certainly try to split the elderly vote during this debate.”
Lee Chan-ho’s face hardened again.
Originally, talk of handing out more sounded plausible no matter what you attached it to, but talk of saving money only made people irritated no matter how reasonable the reasons were.
When the side arguing to reduce pension expenditures clashed with the side saying to give more, it was obvious where the votes would go.
“I see. That mountain is still left.”
“Prime Minister...”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got a sharp tongue too. I won’t lose to Minister Park in a war of words. Have the debate team keep sorting through what might come up in the official debate, and prepare answers as well. For the time being, let’s focus on the debate.”
“Understood.”
“Let’s end today’s meeting here. Don’t worry. I expected this much. Everyone, keep your strength up, and let’s write our comeback story starting with the Gwangju convention.”
As they dismissed the meeting, a young man who had been waiting outside appeared in the conference room.
When Lee Chan-ho saw him, he sighed and loosened his tie.
“Se-jun, what are we going to do about this... I don’t think even the Blue House can manage the pension reform bill now.”
*
After waiting for three hours, I was finally able to face Lee Chan-ho.
But his exhausted face said everything. That I had backed the wrong horse...?
After the first convention, his approval ratings had fallen even further, and the next event, the official debate, held nothing favorable for him either.
“I’m sorry, Prime Minister. This is all because of me...”
“No. Pension reform isn’t a personal favor; it’s for the future of the nation. Of course it’s something worth attempting. But... I have no power right now. The Blue House is the same.”
“...”
“To be honest, I think Minister Park will hit me hard during the official debate. I can’t guarantee how this will go.”
A bitter smile came to me.
In truth, the Blue House had made it clear that it would resolve the pension reform bill before the convention, but the opposition had been so fierce that it was postponed until after the convention.
But it looked as though it would continue to be postponed going forward...
Because by every indicator, the Kim Sang-cheol faction’s return to power seemed remote.
“Se-jun... let’s put the plan to expose corruption among Minister Park’s close associates on hold for now. That only works when the support levels are neck and neck. In a situation like this, the side effects would be greater. But why are you looking at me like that? You’re not thinking of going over to Minister Park, are you?”
“Of course not. I was thinking of a way for you to win the official debate, Prime Minister.”
“A way for me to win?”
I looked at him and said,
“Prime Minister. Since you’ve taken out the stick called pension reform, you should also take out a carrot agenda.”
“A carrot?”
“Yes. The capital gains tax on foreign stocks, created during the IMF crisis... It’s time to review it.”
“What?”
“To be honest, it’s a bad law. Even pension funds, which cause the greatest outflow of national wealth, couldn’t produce these returns if you taxed their capital gains. Put abolition of this tax forward as an agenda.”