Concerns over Progressive Party are not based on ‘color theory’

Concerns over Progressive Party are not based on ‘color theory’. March. 09, 2024 07:45. .
At 2 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2012, a national operation committee meeting of the Unified Progressive Party began in the assembly hall of the National Assembly building. Thirteen party members were elected in the general elections at the time as the party joined hands with the Democratic United Party. The meeting on May 4 was called due to suspected fraudulent acts about the proportional representation election.

The Unified Progressive Party at the time consisted of the former members of the Democratic Labor Party with the eastern Gyeonggi union as a core, as well as the former members of the Participation Party and those who left the New Progressive Party. The former group was considered to be the majority of the party, while the latter group was the minority. Three co-leaders of the party ? Lee Jung-hee, Rhyu Si-min, and Sim Sang-jung ? represented each faction respectively.

The minority members submitted an investigation report on the suspected fraudulent acts regarding the election of proportional representation. The members proposed that the joint delegation and all 14 proportional representation candidates should resign. When covering the scene, this reporter didn’t know the meeting would last so long.

The meeting came to an end around 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, 33 hours and 40 minutes after it began. "It was enough time to reveal the undemocratic and senseless side of the Unified Progressive Party, which was hidden behind the progressive mask," I wrote in an article.

They were busy protecting those on their side while refusing to look into the truths of the fraudulent election suspicion. They put the party members first. “We should be as afraid of party members as we are of the public,” said co-leader Lee Jung-hee. They criticized the voting of the agenda item by comparing it to an unconstitutional coup. They said the investigative report was manipulated like the report on the Cheonan sinking, which only raised non-factual, poor suspicions. The majority party members interrupted the meeting and tried to confine the minority members.

Kang Gi-gap, who was a member of the Unified Progressive Party and later served as the head of the Democratic Labor Party, even told Lee that she should let go of things when it’s necessary by stepping away from ambition and obsession. “The truth of the vague fear that I felt before the unification of the parties is getting to me,” Rhyu said with tears in his eyes.

Eight days later, the party's national operation committee meeting was held at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. The majority members of the party rushed onto the platform and assaulted the delegation of the minority members. Professor Chin Jung-kwon said it was like watching the madness of a social group.

The Unified Progressive Party was divided later that year. The minority members requested the resignation of two party members, Lee Seok-ki and Kim Jae-yeon.

Twelve years later, the Democratic Party of Korea guaranteed three satellite party proportional representation seats for the Progressive Party. The majority members of the Unified Progressive Party established the Progressive Party. The Progressive Party finalized three proportional representation candidates. The member who ran for the general elections as a candidate of the Unified Progressive Party led the efforts to pardon and reinstate former member Lee Seok-ki. The Progressive Party’s manifesto on its website says it will establish people's autonomy by dismantling the unfair relationship between South Korea and the U.S.

According to the results of Gallup Korea’s survey conducted in the first week of March, the approval rating of the Progressive Party is one percent, which is below the three percent mark needed to obtain proportional representation seats on its own.

In addition, the Democratic Party of Korea and the Progressive Party are also unifying in constituencies. Kim Yeong-ho in Seodaemun, Seoul, and Kim Doo-kwan in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, have already unified with the Progressive Party candidates. Kim Jae-yeon, a former member of the Unified Progressive Party 12 years ago, is running as a candidate for the Progressive Party in Uijeongbu Eul, Gyeonggi Province.

The Democratic Party of Korea treats the criticism that it became the host for the revival of the Unified Progressive Party as a so-called ‘color theory.’ Given the behavior showcased by the majority members of the Unified Progressive Party 12 years ago, however, it is not the ‘color theory.’ The majority members of the party directly denied democracy. The ugly truth may reveal itself again after the general elections in April.