[Insight & Opinion] Will the Politics of "Broken Windows" Be Repaired?

Undermining Judicial Independence Through Political Power
Evoking the Collapse of Fallen Dictatorships
Restoring Politics Where the Rule of Law and Common Sense Prevail

The election campaign is now in full swing. This is an early presidential election that has begun amid unprecedented and irrational chaos, unlike any previous election. The leading candidate in the polls is gaining momentum after narrowly avoiding disqualification, while the former ruling party has barely managed to register its candidate after a farcical process of candidate replacement and re-replacement. As long as power politics continues to use political authority to resolve judicial crises, there is little hope for the restoration of democracy. It remains doubtful whether the faction still suffering from the aftermath of the absurd 12·3 Emergency Martial Law can overcome the turmoil of candidate replacement and lead electoral democracy.

The past three years of Korean politics evoke the "broken windows" theory. Immoral and anti-democratic political acts that should be shameful have become routine, creating a shameless political climate. Just as neglected broken windows lead people to treat an area like a dumping ground, eventually turning it into a crime zone and making such degenerate behavior seem natural, the same phenomenon is occurring in politics.

Perhaps politics has always been this way. Although politicians are supposed to represent the people, it is easy for the pursuit of power itself?under the guise of serving the people?to become the true objective. The last three years of Korean politics, which began with an unappealing presidential race, have been especially so. It has been a period of decadent politics, with the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which lost public trust, and Lee Jaemyung's Democratic Party, which tried to resolve judicial risks through power struggles, locked in mutually antagonistic parasitism. In the midst of this, the current early presidential election was triggered by the former president Yoon's self-destruction through delusional 12·3 Emergency Martial Law.

The remaining faction's dominance has only grown stronger. There has been no reflection or innovation from the self-destructed side. They hoped the opposing side would collapse following the Supreme Court's guilty verdict on election law violations. The faction that brought about its own impeachment did not pursue self-reform, but instead resorted to even more extreme and antagonistic parasitic politics, hoping for the other's judicial downfall. Although the Supreme Court's decision to remand the case for retrial seemed to usher in a new phase, the situation reversed again when the retrial was postponed until after the election just one week later.

During this process, the Democratic Party mobilized all legal resources to shield candidate Lee Jaemyung. They discussed impeaching the Chief Justice and other judges, called for a special prosecutor, and attempted legislation to nullify all legal grounds for the charges against Lee. In an unprecedented move, they even tried to summon judges to the National Assembly out of dissatisfaction with court rulings. The Seoul High Court's sudden decision to postpone the retrial until after the election cannot be seen as unrelated to political pressure. This brings to mind leaders like Chavez in Venezuela, Orban in Hungary, and Menem in Argentina, who undermined judicial independence and moved toward dictatorial power. Even Hitler's Nazis in 1933 used legislative power to legally seize total control and establish the Fuhrer system.

Rigid factional politics has shattered the windows of common sense and the rule of law, and now the "broken windows" are simply taken for granted. Anti-democratic and unconstitutional acts are committed without hesitation, and others go along with them. Actions lacking dignity are no longer a source of shame but are seen as badges of loyalty to the cartel. This is the politics of decadence, like the broken windows of a crime zone. Proposals such as increasing the number of Supreme Court justices to 100, introducing constitutional complaints against Supreme Court rulings, and amending laws to nullify the legal basis for Lee's election law violations are being pushed forward recklessly, just like cartel members acting in concert. The former ruling party, which once served as a check, has not recovered from the aftermath of impeachment and is still suffering from the fallout of the nomination crisis. Criticism and concern over "broken windows" politics have become the laments of a minority and the defeated.

Although history does not always progress in a straight line and advances through ups and downs, the current political climate in Korea is deeply troubling. Can we expect a dramatic reversal that will repair the "broken windows" through an election led by those who have benefited from this parasitic structure of decadence?

Kim Manheum, former Chief of the National Assembly Legislative Research Office