From: btlee@emx.cc.utexas.edu (Mr. Byungtae Lee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.korean
Subject: Post-election thought.
Date: 23 Dec 92 18:27:59 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas

From: kim@magneto.physics.auburn.edu (Han-jung Kim)  wrote:
Date: 20 Dec 92 03:41:26 GMT

  Here goes my simple thoughts somewhat different from many of netters.

>Relatively young genertation have preffered DJ to YS.
>However at last YS has won.
     
  After last election in 1988, I realized this kind of analysis totally
  based on biased sample. At that time, I conducted a poll among my 
  subordinates. Among 13, YS got 12. All of them were college graduated
  and in some sense, they were middle class people. Unfortunately, I did
  not have any one from Cholla province.  In addition, we do not count on
  non-college- graudated many in Korea. At that time, 20's and 30's "young"
  voters consisted of more than 60 % of total eligible voters.
  If they are as progressive as you think, we did not have general-turned
  president. And why did all progressive parties fail?


>I know that DJ speaks better than YS and he has stable supporter.
>and YS has ever changed hist party to ruling party.
------------------------------------------------------
  See the following my argument.

>Neverthless ultimately YS grap his goal to a president and
>DJ has lost the game.
>I wonder why DJ failed and why YS successed.
>IS YS brighter than DJ?
   
  Yes, I think YS is brighter than DJ. 
  Politics is not IQ contest. I think we judge potician's brightness from
  political view.
  Before my premature analysis, I want to make it clear that I was DJ supporter
  till before he broke up from then-united opposition party (UDP:Unification
  Democratic Party) and established his own PDP(Peace Democratic Party).
  Very this event made me think he was (still is) stupid or did (still does)
  not have brains near him unlike YS.
  
  Until then, we had a unique opposition party and regionalism was latent.
  Both KyungSang and Cholla supported UDP. It was he who made regionalism
  explict in politics and exploit that for his presidency bid. After that,
  UDP and PDP were not no longer "true" opposition parties opposing "evils".
  They were changed into regional parties.  After that it has been so clear to 
  even layman like me except for only die-hard DJ supporters that he could not 
  win by himself. In the previous election, there stupid logic was that 
  if two non-Cholla candidates (Rho and YS) devided votes evenly, he could win.
  This time, they counted on the same calculation. For me it was he who 
  demolished the true opposition party and established the regional parties
  in the first time in Korean history.
  Still I remember that he rejected YS's final proposal to have popular voting 
  for candidate nomination. For me he missed the only one possible way for him
  to become a president. That was, I still believe, to support YS and get 
  promise for next presidency.

  For it was also he who drove YS to shift from opposition to the ruling party.
  I never blamed YS for this shift because I thought then oppostion parties
  (UDP, PDP and JP's NRP) were just based on regionalism and the reason why 
  they supported their regional leaders was only to make there good son as 
  the prez no matter policy are.  In orther words, DJ changed whole meaning of
  opposition party. In addition, it was he who compromised with Rho to enjoy
  his leadership as the largest opposition party when Rho  canceled his promise
  to have the mid term referendum.
  His playing myoptic playing politics gave a critical 
  momentum to YS to hear his aids such as Byungtae Hwang who recommended to 
  merge. That's the reason why I think he is brighter than DJ, otherwise DJ
  does not have such "analytical" guy or does not hear his brain aids either.

>or Korean people will not elect any unruling part even if the cadidate
>from opposition party is superior to the cadidate from ruling party?
>or Did DJ fail to construct the mild image to the middle class and
>to make them understand that this image is formed by the ruling party and
>the korean mass media.

  Like candidates, I think we, also should accept 
  the choice of people. I believe that Korean voters showed that they are not 
  so foolish as some elitists think.  
  Should we believ that DJ has got such negative image by only his opponents' 
  manupulation?  He had relied on many radical student movement when we had
  terrible dictatorship, especially, Yoo-Shin. He tried to please those group 
  which is definitely radical from the view-point of majority.
  That's why still young voters from universities support him. But think about
  how Clinton took himself away from liberals.  DJ's shifts from radical to
  modest positions was his choice, not by opponent's propaganda. 
  His alliance with JunMinYoun in this election shows how they are ignorant of 
  reality of people. This mismatch shows another lack of intelligence or
  analytical capability abound him. How was it consitent with so-called New 
  DJ plan?

>Or simply most of korean people do not like DJ?
>I am eager to hear the reason why DJ must be defeated by YS from you,
>wist netter.
>I thought at the beginning of the election, DJ might be elected as 
>a president but surprisingly DJ got only 34% of total ballots. This
>is somewhat hard to understand..
>The shaking with a seemingly radical organization resulted in the reduction
>of ballot from the middle class? or Did DJ get only 34% 
>even if more ballot came from this campaign. 

  It was better performance than I thought. He overcomed so-called his 6 mil.
  limitation. However, as I pointed out they even did not follow very simple
  calculation but rather expected that some miracles happened or the third 
  party would help him. This is not what scientific modern party could do!

>For the 1997 election, I think we need to analyze why DJ at last was pulled
>down.

  I still can not call MINJOO as democrat because any party is not based on 
  political platform. They are just groups of cheap politicans followed 
  regional leaders.  First of all, if they want to win, they should reform
  themselves first. Do not blame the ruling party for not having provincial
  self-governing systems (JI-Bang-Ja-Chi) while they are selling parliament
  seats and assigning candidates instead of primaries.
  Restore the unique oppostion party free from Cholla-centric regionalism which
  was destroyed by DJ. Recruiting more brains. In any sense, the ruling party 
  exceeds so far the opposition parties in having brains and technocrafts.

  I respect poeple's choice because I believe Korean economy can not afford 
  any experiment by unproven radical or idealism. It's more than that.
  BTW, do economists agree any problems and means to cure those in any economy?
  
>Expecting very good analysis on this topic....

  Just cheap and unorganized thought!
 
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