[Opinion] The Political Reality Revealed by 'Lee Young-sun'

Nothing like this has ever happened before. It is a lamentable matter. It is absurd. One wonders if politics has deteriorated this much. What is politics, and why do political parties exist? This is about Lee Young-seon, the former candidate for Sejong City Gap, whose nomination was canceled by the Democratic Party on the night of the 23rd. Her case succinctly revealed the true face of the nomination process that the political world calls 'system nomination,' the harmful effects of a distorted political culture, and the disappearance of a sense of duty in politics. False document submissions, parties without verification, baseless constituency changes... Above all, it exposed the true faces of those thick-skinned individuals running political 'business.'

She owns four apartments, six officetels, one commercial building, and one leasehold right. Despite having real estate worth approximately 3.8 billion KRW and debts amounting to 3.76893 billion KRW, she submitted to the party that she only owned one apartment and one officetel. Was this to hide a typical gap investment? The former candidate said, "My wife invested without my knowledge," but are we supposed to believe that?

The party's responsibility is by no means light. Although they claim there is no way to verify additional assets beyond what the individual reports, the failure to properly verify ultimately infringed on the people's right to vote. This issue is on a completely different level from a simple 'past offensive remarks verification' problem. She knowingly submitted false information about her assets, which is current and easily verifiable by documents. Yet she passed the verification and became the candidate of the main opposition party. This clearly shows that while the term 'nomination verification' sounds impressive, its substance is full of holes.

The person accused of 'gap investment' is a member of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society. She has served as the head of the Democratic Party Daejeon City Party's Legal Support Group, the head of the Countermeasure Team for Jeonse Fraud, and as an advisory lawyer for the Daejeon City Jeonse Fraud Victims' Committee. It is ironic. Before moving to Sejong Gap, when she declared her candidacy for Daejeon Seo-gu Gap, she said, "In the 20th presidential election, I served as the head of the legal support group's media team for candidate Lee Jae-myung's camp and devoted myself entirely to the party."

Having been a Democratic Party member for 20 years, did she really think the 'gap investment suspicion' would not be a problem? No matter how much one says 'politicians do not have to be moral saints,' this is unacceptable. It is incomprehensible. This could not have happened if she did not view politics as a business.

Reflecting the gravity of the matter, Representative Lee said, "A lawmaker who should be a role model for the people causes despair among the public through gap investment, and even deceives the party and the people during the party's nomination screening. Such a person must not be allowed to enter the National Assembly, even if it means losing seats." She canceled the nomination. It is a belated but correct decision. However, it should not stop there. If possible, judicial measures should be taken, and institutional reforms should be pursued.

This incident is partly an individual's fault, but at its root lies a distorted political culture. The wrong culture that if you are loyal to those in power, demonize opponents, your own faults do not matter must be eradicated. But the reality is the opposite. Since there are 'Lee Young-seons' everywhere, political change is a distant prospect.