Lee Won-wook: "Hong Seong-guk and Oh Young-hwan, first-term lawmakers not running, struggled with activist purity culture"

Successive Democratic First-Term Lawmakers Announce Non-Candidacy
"First-Term Lawmakers Struggle with Extreme Partisan Logic"

Lee Won-wook, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, expressed concern on the 14th over the decision of first-term lawmakers Hong Seong-guk and Lee Tan-hee to not run in next year's general election, saying, "In the polarized factional politics, the space for committee members with actual expertise is gradually shrinking," and added, "This clearly shows the backwardness of our politics."

The day before, Hong, a former president of Mirae Asset Daewoo (now Mirae Asset Securities), and Lee, a former judge, announced they would not run in the general election. Earlier, in April, Oh Young-hwan, a former firefighter, declared he would not run, stating he would "return to being a firefighter." All three are first-term lawmakers who were recruited as talents by the Democratic Party in the 21st general election.

On the same day, Lee appeared on SBS Radio's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show' and claimed that first-term lawmakers struggled due to the party's activist purism and hardline supporter base.

He said, "Experts like Hong, who specializes in economics, and Oh, who specializes in firefighting, had a very hard time," adding, "As activist purism and hardline purism intensified, even a slight opposing view was met with being labeled like during the post-liberation era, called a 'red' or 'watermelon' (a term for someone who appears green but is red inside). This phenomenon was very painful to witness."

Lee Tan-hee, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced on the 13th at the National Assembly that he will not run in next year's general election and is greeting the camera. [Image source=Yonhap News]

He continued, "There can be different opinions, but recently the Democratic Party has often forced everyone to unify their thoughts under the party line," and said, "In fact, this could be a violation of the constitution."

He added, "Despite the clause that all lawmakers vote according to their conscience, the party line has been enforced in a way that betrays conscience," and said, "As a result, it has become populism."

Lee stated, "There was a lot of discussion at the party meeting over the Serious Accident Punishment Act, and I cast a dissenting vote," and said, "But at the plenary session, I was the only Democratic Party lawmaker who voted against it, and I was also the only one to abstain on the Yellow Envelope Act."

He pointed out, "Even though it was not a party line, many lawmakers said, 'Lee Won-wook's opinion is correct,' and 'This law should not be handled this way,' but they had to suppress their thoughts, swept away by the atmosphere and factional logic," and added, "This is the political harm caused by the extreme factional politics created by the two camps."

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