DP's talk of 'impeachment signs' is just internal strife

The ruling party should address public distrust in its governance rather than frame declining support as an ideological battle.

Democratic Party (DP) leader Kim Min-seok on Monday likened internal criticism of President Lee Jae Myung to "the signs that preceded the attempt by forces inside and outside the party to join hands and impeach President Roh Moo-hyun." His remarks reflected frustration with party hard-liners who emphasize ideological purity in reform.

Earlier, Gyeonggi Gov. Choo Mi-ae criticized the nomination of a former prosecutor to head the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, saying the administration was "cowering while leaning on insurrectionist forces." Former DP leader Jung Chung-rae said on popular commentator Kim Eo-jun's program that "the president was stabbed in the back by prosecutors."

Factional conflict serious enough for the ruling party leader to invoke "impeachment" in the administration's second year is troubling. The bigger problem, however, is that both sides are missing the point. Lee's falling approval rating is not primarily because party unity has weakened or hardcore supporters have deserted over insufficiently forceful reform. The main reason is that the common sense, fairness and pragmatic centrism Lee emphasized have disappeared from governance.

Legislation by the ruling party, government policies and presidential appointments have repeatedly defied public common sense. Supplementary investigative authority was abolished without measures for crime victims. Real estate tax revisions increased burdens on owners of a single home who do not live in it. Current housing policies would label most nominees in the Aug. 30 Cabinet reshuffle speculators.

Amid these controversies, Lee's job approval rating has fallen for nine consecutive weeks to 33.8 percent, according to Realmeter yesterday. In party support, the DP, at 36.1 percent, has fallen behind the People Power Party at 42.1 percent.

This is not because reform has been too weak or impure, nor because rival factions have obstructed it, as competing camps now claim. It reflects public disappointment with the conduct of government itself.

The ruling party should stop treating declining support as an internal ideological dispute and instead confront why voters are losing confidence.

The only way to win back voters who have turned away is to translate ordinary citizens' common sense into government action. Internal feuding over which faction is more committed to reform merely distracts from that essential task.

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