Chuseok regional sentiment revealed
'PPP must reinvent itself as a viable alternative'
People Power Party Policy Committee Chairwoman Lim Ja-ja said Tuesday that the public mood she encountered during the Chuseok holiday was one of deep anxiety. "Watching how the country is being run, people say they cannot stand the unease," she said. "That is the sentiment I heard from the regions."
Speaking on SBS Radio's "Kim Tae-hyun's Politics Show" that day, Lim said the Lee Jae Myung government and the Democratic Party of Korea may be touting improved economic indicators, but ordinary people feel anything but. "What people are actually experiencing is that it is genuinely hard to make ends meet," she said.
Lim said grocery prices are surging, with staples such as rice, beef and eggs rising between 3 and 7 percent. "People are saying they cannot live like this — that they feel like they are dying," she said. She added that longtime business owners told her the current economic conditions were unlike anything they had seen before, noting that even during the IMF crisis people acknowledged the economy was bad, but this time the sense of hardship felt new.
Lim also directed criticism at the government. She questioned whether the administration's vetting process was functioning at all, citing the nominations of Kim Seung-won and candidate Yong Hye-in as examples. She also took aim at the plan to separate investigation and indictment powers, saying the government appeared to be moving to abolish the Prosecution Service while still having failed to identify candidates for the heads of the proposed Public Prosecution Office and the Central Investigation Agency.
She further criticized the government's clashes with Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de. "There was an enormous confrontation with Chief Justice Jo," she said. "People are worn out by these conflicts."
On the direction of the People Power Party itself, Lim said the message she heard from constituents was clear. "Most people said: even as the Democratic Party fumbles and the Lee Jae Myung government keeps making mistakes, you in the PPP need to get your act together and become a genuine alternative," she said. "They told us to spell out clearly what we intend to change. That, too, is the regional sentiment I came away with."
On the opposition's strategy toward the government, Lim said her personal view was that the party should take its fight outside the National Assembly. "I am also one of those who believes we must raise our voice to the public when it comes to what I see as the Lee Jae Myung government's drift toward authoritarian rule," she added.
Regarding the government's farmland investigation, Lim said the response among farmers had been one of uproar. While she acknowledged that speculative land purchases must be curbed, she stressed that the process needed to be more careful. "There should be thorough review and investigation first, then farmers should be reassured, and only then should speculators be singled out," she said.
On Cheong Wa Dae's demand that the chief justice resubmit his Supreme Court justice nominations, Lim said the proper constitutional process was straightforward. "From the public's perspective, the chief justice nominates the justices, the National Assembly gives its consent, and the president appoints them," she said. "If the president dislikes the nominees, he sends them to the Assembly and they would naturally be rejected. So why not do that?"
She added her own reading of the situation. "My sense is that if the nominees go to the Assembly, there may be defections from within the ruling party — or it could be that the chief justice's picks are actually people who meet the public's expectations," she said.
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