단상斷想

The results confirmed by Brazil's Superior Electoral Court on the night of the 25th local time, with over 99.76% of votes counted, were more than just a declaration of election; they were an event demonstrating the self-healing power of democracy. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the current president, secured 51.76% of the votes, defeating candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who received 48.24%, by a margin of 3.52 percentage points. With this victory, Brazil has produced its first four-term president in modern political history.

It is also the first time since the resumption of direct presidential elections after democratization in 1989 that a candidate who trailed in the first round reversed the outcome in the runoff. This reversal, where Bolsonaro, who led by about 2.2 million votes in the first round, was overturned by a margin of over 4.4 million votes in the runoff, is recorded as a historic event that put a brake on the 'Blue Tide' (wave of right-wing power) that was sweeping Latin America. The process was tense: in the early stages of vote counting, Bolsonaro took the lead based on his advantage in urban areas, but Lula, who began to catch up after 30% of the votes were counted, successfully reversed the lead again around 48% and seized victory. The defeated Flávio Bolsonaro stated that he "cannot accept the results" and would request an annulment, which precisely overlaps with the history of his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who refused to accept defeat in 2022 and was involved in a coup plot, leading to a long prison sentence.

This result shows that Brazilian democracy is still alive. Lula, who started as a union activist from a peasant background, served as president twice from 2003 to 2011, and again from 2023, implementing policies aimed at genuinely improving the lives of the poor and workers. In this election, he also rallied his popular base by accelerating the schedule for cash assistance to low-income individuals and pushing for improved working conditions. In contrast, the Bolsonaro family symbolizes far-right populism, nostalgia for military rule, and anti-democratic defiance.

The eldest son of Zaire, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison and placed under house arrest after attempting a coup following his defeat in the presidential election, aiming for the presidency was a direct challenge to democracy. In a trend where the right-wing is gaining ground across Central and South America and regional politics are shifting to the right after a second Trump administration, Brazil, the largest country, preserving a left-wing government demonstrated the limits of extreme family politics and refusal to accept election results in the face of institutional democracy. Lula's own history of being imprisoned on bribery charges, then pardoned and returning to power, also proves that the people's choice can reverse history through institutions.

This reversal in Brazil is by no means irrelevant to us in Korea. We, too, must solidify and develop a democracy for the people, by the people, centered around Lee Jae-myung. President Lee Jae-myung is a politician who has stood against the excessive political intervention of prosecutorial power and the vested interest structure. His leadership aims not at maintaining power, but at a democracy where popular sovereignty functions practically, not just formally. Just as Lula in Brazil overturned an initial disadvantage and led a reversal towards prioritizing the lives of the people, politics centered around Lee Jae-myung in Korea must also prioritize the daily lives of the people and fair institutions.

Democracy is a continuous process of verifying whether power institutions work for the people even after elections, or if they deceive the people for the benefit of specific forces. What politics centered around Lee Jae-myung pursues is precisely this restoration of practical sovereignty. Formal elections and procedural legitimacy alone are not enough. An institutional foundation must be established for the people to decide their own lives, and in that process, Lee Jae-myung's leadership must become the central axis that brings the voices of the people into the system.

To achieve this, the most urgent task is to dismantle entrenched forces, which means judicial reform. The structure in which remnants of the Japanese colonial era and descendants of remaining Japanese individuals mock the public to protect their vested interests can no longer be tolerated. In the historical context where the liquidation of pro-Japanese collaborators remained incomplete after liberation, the judiciary and prosecutorial power have repeatedly served as political tools, representing the interests of specific factions. It is a clear fact that the remnants of the Japanese colonial era have persisted within the modern Korean judicial system, leading to a structure where the abuse of power and the protection of vested interests restrict the fundamental rights of the people. The incomplete liquidation immediately after liberation was not limited to issues of past history. It deeply permeated the personnel and operational logic of power institutions, reproducing a system where specific factions pursued their interests through judicial procedures and checked opposing forces. This structure led to the public being regarded as objects of management rather than subjects, and as a result, judicial power has sometimes served as a shield for vested interests rather than protecting the fundamental rights of the people.

Just as Lula in Brazil has continued people-based politics against corruption and abuse of power, in Korea, through judicial reform, we must adjust the excessive investigative and prosecutorial powers of the prosecution and strengthen the independence and fairness of the courts, so that vested interest groups can no longer deceive the public. We must achieve an institutional break so that colonial remnants are never again reproduced in modern politics and justice due to incomplete past liquidation. Judicial reform is not about retribution, but about the practical realization of popular sovereignty.

To prevent the manipulation of public opinion or the distortion of judicial procedures by remnants of Japanese imperialism and their descendants for their vested interests, transparent personnel appointments, decentralization of power, and a system that allows for direct public oversight must be supported. The structure in which the prosecution determines the direction and intensity of investigations based on political judgment, and the results influence trials, conflicts with the basic principles of democracy. Adjusting these powers appropriately and creating an environment where the courts can make independent judgments free from political pressure is the core of judicial reform. The development of democracy, centered around Lee Jae-myung, must start at this point.

Just as the Brazilian people chose to "defend democracy" through Lula's comeback, the Korean people must also complete true politics of the people, by the people, for the people through the eradication of deep-rooted evils and judicial reform. Democracy can only fully blossom in a society where the mockery of vested interests has disappeared. History has already shown how incomplete liquidation leads to repeated distortions. Now, that cycle must be broken. People's democracy, centered on Lee Jae-myung, must pave the way for its completion.

Eradicating the remnants of Japanese colonial rule and the deception of the vested interests through judicial reform, and establishing a system where power institutions truly work for the people, is precisely the answer to the strongest message Brazil's comeback delivers to us. Democracy is maintained by the will of those who protect it, and completed by reforms that break the distortions of vested interests. Lee Jae-myung must stand at the center of that reform, and the goal of that reform is to create a country where the people are never again deceived by vested interests.