단상斷想

Is the controversy surrounding Minister of Gender Equality and Family candidate Kang Sun-woo really just a case of individual misconduct, or abuse of power?

As the noise continues day after day and the controversy drags on, it somehow reminds me of the Park Won-soon MeToo case. It seems that behind the Kang Sun-woo candidate issue lies political maneuvering involving complex power struggles and factional conflicts within the Democratic Party, as well as trashy journalists trying to shake up the hard-working Lee Jae-myung administration and wear them down.

On the surface, the allegations of abuse of power against aides have received attention as the main issue, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Various allegations against candidate Kang - such as making them do housework, private errands such as toilet repairs, and controversies over wearing luxury goods - deserve criticism for their character, but are not significant enough to be discussed as disqualifications for performing the duties of a minister. If it were the Moon Jae-in administration, the public might have been deceived by the media shaking things up as much as the person in charge of personnel affairs was incompetent, but as the people who blocked Moon Jae-in's successor heading for insurrection with their whole bodies, it is necessary to keep a close eye on the media and the intra-Democratic party factional struggles that are trying to seize and shake the core of power again through incitement.

This is because the public does not feel the invisible power, the desires of those who want to become the real power and those who were the real power.

First of all, candidate Kang Sun-woo is a pro-Lee Jae-myung person. In that sense, the core of the resignation controversy is the internal checks and balances and cracks in the party regarding Lee Jae-myung's personnel authority and leadership. The appointment of the first Minister of Gender Equality and Family after the launch of the Lee Jae-myung government had an important symbolic meaning that could gauge the nature of the new government. However, as criticism from within and outside the party against candidate Kang grew, some interpreted this as not a simple personal problem, but as a power struggle between Lee Jae-myung's close aides and other forces within the party.

In particular, the analysis that the existence of 'internal forces' raised within the Democratic Party and their organized movements are directly influencing the personnel authority of Representative Lee Jae-myung is gaining traction. This suggests that it is not simply aimed at candidate Kang individually, but that there is an underlying intention to check Representative Lee Jae-myung's leadership and the core forces surrounding him.

It is suggested that the strong influence of female activist-turned-lawmakers is playing a role in the internal opposition to candidate Kang Sun-woo. In particular, Rep. Kim Sang-hee (a figure from the women's movement who has worked in the Korea Women's Association United, the Women's Environmental Network, etc., and has worked to expand gender equality policies in the National Assembly), Rep. Nam In-soon (a lawmaker who has actively engaged in legislative and policy activities in the fields of gender equality, women's safety, and rights based on her experience in women's organizations), and Rep. Jung Chun-sook (a female activist who is active in legislation and policies related to women) are known to have expressed strong doubts about candidate Kang's qualifications.

These female lawmakers, who are former women's rights activists, are exercising considerable influence over the selection of the Minister of Gender Equality and Family, based on their long experience and networks in the women's movement. It is said that former Minister of Gender Equality and Family Jin Sun-mi has also consistently voiced her opinions on gender equality bills and women's human rights issues in the National Assembly, and expressed concerns regarding the candidate's qualifications based on her experience as a minister. However, the problem is that it appears to be developing into an organized criticism by gender forces that could potentially evolve into radical feminists, beyond simply criticizing personality issues. This gender issue is one of the dangerous time bombs that could stop the future growth engine of Korean society. Because authority follows when organizations and taxes are attached to gender, the women's movement, which is desperately clinging on, is now a force to be reckoned with.

The influence of these female activist-turned-lawmakers goes beyond simply expressing personal opinions, and operates as a very organized and systematic check mechanism. They are interpreted as representing the voices of the women's movement and at the same time serving as a check on Representative Lee Jae-myung's personnel authority. Factional conflicts within the Democratic Party have a long history and are closely related to the structural characteristics of Korean politics. The Democratic Party has traditionally formed a complex factional structure based on region, ideology, and generation, and these internal conflicts have been continuously expressed in major personnel decisions and policy direction settings. The women's movement is taking the 'gender' authority from the Korean male identity and growing it significantly. This is a phenomenon seen in the decline of a species. It is the image of a species that cannot cooperate between male and female, and one side gnaws at the other, leading to self-destruction.

Regarding the appointment of Kang Sun-woo as the Minister of Gender Equality and Family, the Presidential Office has consistently stated a cautious position, saying, "We will monitor the hearing process and make a decision." Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung, Senior Secretary for Public Relations and Communication Lee Gyu-yeon, and others have repeatedly stated, "There is no change in the personnel-related atmosphere," and "Some media reports that it is leaning towards voluntary resignation are not true," clearly drawing a line. However, some media outlets continue to publish unfounded interpretive articles suggesting that the Presidential Office has reversed its appointment policy or is leaning towards voluntary resignation, whether at the behest of someone or because they do not want the person.

This is a typical public opinion campaign by trashy journalists who used to tame the government in the past. Since the birth of newspapers was in Japanese imperialist propaganda, they are repeating the methods of the era when the stupid masses would follow if the media led the way. It is more pathetic that trashy journalists think that the 100-year-old method still works. If you think about it, you can see that the atmosphere is the same as when Park Won-soon was accused of sexual misconduct. They drove a politician to suicide with irresponsible distortions of a low-quality Japanese style that caused confusion to the public and fostered political distrust, and the scene where the police announcing the discovery of his body could not hide their smiles is vivid in my mind.

Such distorted and sensational reporting is an act of forgetting the inherent role of the press. Although the minimum standard that the press must overcome is faithful coverage and reporting of facts, they are alienating the President's Office and the public with arbitrary interpretations without checking sources or official announcements. The phenomenon of questions going back and forth in a battle of wills with the spokesperson for the Presidential Secretariat also has this history of modern humiliation underlying it. Someone is proud of leading the incitement, and someone else is shouting opposition because of the negative impact that such a phenomenon will bring. A group that creates and rolls a cycle in which the person who always opposes loses and is trampled on is used to it.

As a result, the public's right to know and the credibility of the public sphere are being seriously undermined. While it is permissible in a democracy for the press to voice diverse opinions on political issues, intentional distortion and indiscriminate incitement for specific factions can never be justified. In a situation where the President's Office maintains a clear stance, the fact that some media outlets are obscuring the truth and damaging public opinion deserves strong criticism.

The controversy over candidate Kang Sun-woo's resignation reveals a deeper structural problem in Korean politics, namely the problem of closed political elite groups and specific forces. Korean political elites have long shared limited personal networks and backgrounds, forming a structure that circulates within the political sphere. This structure limits the influx of new talent and solidifies the practice of personnel decisions being made according to the interests of existing forces. With many politicians within the Democratic Party sharing similar educational backgrounds (prestigious university graduates), professional backgrounds (legal professionals, activists), and regional backgrounds, the network between them exerts a stronger influence than the official party organizational structure. This closed elite structure restricts political diversity and makes it difficult for the diverse voices of civil society to be reflected in the political arena.

The factional conflict within the Democratic Party of Korea exemplifies the chronic problem of factional politics in Korean politics. The reality that personal loyalty and factional affiliation have a greater influence on political decisions than policy and ideology acts as a major factor hindering the development of democracy. As seen in the case of candidate Kang Sun-woo, the criteria for judgment are more about which faction one belongs to and whose support one receives, rather than policy expertise or competence in public office. This degrades the professionalism and accountability of politics and weakens public trust in politics.

Reporters, go home, and those in the Democratic Party who pursue old-fashioned politics, reflect. Is this the time for that? Traitors are openly roaming around. Five million party members should strictly monitor Democratic Party politicians.