[Insight & Opinion] Lone Resolute Leadership Must Now Change

President Yoon Suk-yeol has been repeatedly emphasizing communication with the people and on-site public sentiment following the crushing defeat in the Gangseo by-election. He also adds calls to return to the original intention. This is a natural attitude that those in power responsible for running the country should have. Is he reaffirming and emphasizing what he already knows? Or has he realized what he had missed by observing the public sentiment in the by-election? It is closer to the latter. In fact, realizing this only now is far from the common sense of ordinary citizens. Even before the by-election, negative evaluations of the president’s governance were overwhelming. Moreover, expecting victory in the by-election while pardoning and nominating those responsible was rather bizarre in terms of what the real intention was. It was not that they did not know public sentiment, but rather governance and leadership that ignored it.

It is at least fortunate that he says he will wisely change by learning from the election defeat. Whether this will become a genuine turning point for reflection and transformation of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration remains to be seen. The president also admitted that his communication was lacking and said he is reflecting deeply. This is actually the core issue. As seen in personnel appointments and governance, the president’s lone, resolute leadership that disregards public sentiment is the root cause of the alienation of the people.

Although President Yoon is from outside the political sphere and is sometimes described as owing no debts to the political world, he owes a great deal to the people. After all, the people chose someone inexperienced in party politics. He should have been more faithful and humble toward public sentiment. Unfortunately, President Yoon’s leadership was rather a lone leadership indifferent to public sentiment. While his supporters praised his decisive and bold leadership, it was a prosecutorial style of leadership that did not fit democratic leadership.

Power is more likely to be arrogant than humble. That is why humility is emphasized as a virtue of those in power. Because of this nature of power, democratic systems institutionalize checks and balances on power. In the Yoon Suk-yeol government, the judicial risks faced by the leader of the main opposition party became a background factor that neutralized the opposition’s ability to check the government despite the ruling party’s minority status. The judicial risks shackled the opposition. The ruling forces used these judicial risks as leverage to conduct unilateral governance indifferent to public sentiment. It was governance where both the opposition’s checks and the pressure of public sentiment were missing.

The recent Gangseo District Office by-election was a local government head election, but it showed the leadership of President Yoon and the ruling party, indifferent to public sentiment, in an extreme way during the ruling party’s candidate nomination process. The party claimed it was focusing all efforts on the election while neglecting public sentiment. The alienated public sentiment was confirmed by the election results. It was the result of their own toxic symbiosis, relying on judicial risk leverage without being faithful to public sentiment.

Although lessons and reflections are being spoken of, the judgmental public opinion confirmed in the election continues. It depends on whether the ruling party can innovate its role as a channel for critical public opinion and change its personnel appointment policy. Ultimately, it is the president’s own innovation. Changes in personnel policy depend entirely on the president. Innovations in the ruling party, including changes in party-government relations, are also influenced by the president’s attitude, especially in the early days of the administration. Attention is also focused on whether Innovation Committee Chairman In Yo-han, brought in for reform, can somewhat overcome the limitations of the Kim Ki-hyun leadership. Can we expect a turnaround from President Yoon that creates new goodwill beyond the time when he received cheerful responses by singing “American Pie” at the White House dinner in April?

Kim Man-heum, Chair Professor at Hansung University, Former Director of the National Assembly Legislative Research Office

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.