[The Editors' Verdict] 586 Activist Politicians, Step Down

Jae-Hyung Jeong Economic Finance Editor

In the local elections on June 1, the Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat. Even well before the final stages of the election, there was already a widespread atmosphere that the Democratic Party would be overwhelmingly defeated.

Perhaps feeling the need to do something in such a situation, Park Ji-hyun, co-chair of the Democratic Party's Emergency Response Committee, stated one week before the election day, "We need to discuss the retirement of 586 politicians to restore public trust." She pointed out, "Although there was a retirement declaration during the presidential election, only Kim Young-choon, Kim Boo-kyum, and Choi Jae-sung have announced their retirement," adding, "Promises cannot change just because we lost the election."

She continued, "The mission of the 586 generation was to restore democracy and establish it in this land, and now that role has been almost fulfilled," and argued, "We must prepare a graceful exit. Running for more than four terms in the same constituency should also be banned as promised."

While this is not the case among the Democratic Party's core supporters, criticism of the 586 activist politicians is abundant. Just looking at related books, one might wonder if there has ever been so much criticism aimed at a specific group. Titles include '386 OUT: Youth Will Live Only if 386 Dies' (Kim Dae-ho), 'Democracy of the 86 Generation: The Origin of the Democratization Movement and Juche Faction Power' (Min Kyung-woo), 'The End of Cho Kuk and a New Story for the Future: What Choice Will the MZ Generation Make?' (Hye Ryeo-hwi), 'Rude Politics: How Progressives Fell into Dogmatism and Arrogance' (Kang Jun-man), 'Wake Up Korea: The Identity of Korea Bewitched by Juche Ideology' (Jung Dong-seop), and so on.

Why do 586 activist politicians receive such harsh criticism? The atmosphere in the early days of the Moon Jae-in administration was not like this. Although the doomed income-led growth and nuclear phase-out policies were heavily criticized as they were pushed by scholars from the 586 activist generation and environmental groups, they were not representative of the 586 activists themselves.

The decisive turning point seems to have been the Cho Kuk and Yoon Mee-hyang scandals. No matter how wrong the actions were, the 'camp logic' and 'double standards' of defending one's own side fell far short of the public's common sense and expectations. Especially through the Yoon Mee-hyang case, it was revealed that government and local government budgets were used to support civic groups and that accounting was not properly handled.

The projects favored by the 586 activists, such as village communities, regional regeneration, and resident participation, were like that. People thought, "My taxes are really being wasted on useless things. They are outsourcing operations to their own affiliated groups to pay personnel expenses." Moreover, there were also remarks like, "By tying these economic interests together, they can firmly bind the Democratic Party's support base."

The cancellation of the comfort women agreement with Japan showed how outdated the 586 activists' understanding of the international political order was. The Park Geun-hye administration also did not want to make the agreement, but the Obama administration, which needed to strengthen the U.S.-Japan-South Korea alliance, made great efforts to bring Korea and Japan together. However, at a time when the U.S. was intensifying its containment of China, the agreement between the two countries was canceled, and nationalist anti-Japanese sentiments were stirred up by singing 'Jukchangga' (a Korean resistance song with bamboo spears).

Even amid the Russia-Ukraine war, some use pro-Russian expressions and criticize the U.S. and other Western countries. This is despite the growing conflict between the liberal democratic camp and the totalitarian camp and the end of the era of globalization as we knew it.

Forces that divide people into dichotomies such as anti-Japanese versus pro-Japanese, democracy versus anti-democracy, progressives versus conservatives (here referred to as 586 activist politicians, though there are certainly admirable 586 activists) must disappear. Only then can the Democratic Party be revived.

To those who once shouted in the streets in their youth, "Down with the dictatorship," I now want to return the same words: "586 activist politicians, step down."

P.S. Of course, they will not step down on their own, just like the dictatorship did. Whether through elections or other means such as public opinion campaigns, they must be driven out. I leave here a phrase they so despise: "(In terms of not stepping down voluntarily) they are no different from a dictatorship."