The process from Seoul Mayor to Gyeyang was the biggest failure in the local elections
"If we start with leadership that makes proper public judgments, we will definitely win the general election"
[Asia Economy Reporters Naju-seok and Park Joon-yi] Kim Min-seok, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea who challenged the party leadership election, mentioned the issue of candidate nomination for the Seoul mayoral election in the local elections on the 28th, appealing, "In this party convention, we must sound a severe warning against the trend of prioritizing personal matters over public interests and comrades over the entire party, and show that the party is alive."
During his policy speech as a preliminary candidate for the Democratic Party leadership election, Kim said, "There was one question I absolutely could not overlook that led me to decide to run for party leader," introducing it as "a question about the nomination for the Seoul mayoral election, which was the decisive cause of defeat in the last local elections."
He stated, "Even if there were a hundred other reasons for defeat in the process that started in Seoul and extended to Gyeyang, no one can deny that the nomination was the biggest cause of defeat and a point of self-blame," and questioned, "Why was it pushed through despite being unreasonable? Who holds the final responsibility? Can it just be covered up by saying we will win next time?"
Kim said, "Have we ever had such a situation in our Democratic Party where comrades are sacrificed for one's own survival, especially when private interests of the party's top officials come first?" and added, "The honest background for my decision to run was to prevent such wrong attitudes and mindsets from becoming the party's mainstream again."
He also said, "I was the youngest member of the National Assembly and the youngest Seoul mayoral candidate, enjoying six years in my 30s like heaven, then returned after a tough 18 years as a private citizen," and "No matter how desperate the victory, I learned with my whole body that values must be preserved over political engineering, and I have returned." Kim described this as "the second round of my political life, where I decided to contribute quietly to the party by practicing right politics rather than fast politics," and said, "Since the Seoul mayoral election, I absolutely could not stay silent."
Kim asked repeatedly, "The reason we chose Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, and Moon Jae-in was not just because of their power, right?" and "When Jeong Se-gyun, Lee Hae-chan, and Choo Mi-ae were party leaders, even if we had different thoughts, did we ever doubt their public-spirited judgments?"
He said, "In this party convention, we must sound a severe warning against the trend of prioritizing personal matters over public interests and comrades over the entire party, and show that the party is alive," and added, "If the party trusts each other and unites under leadership that makes proper public judgments, we can start over anytime and surely win the next general election."
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