PSPD in English Archive 2003-01-31   2068

The 2002 Presidential Election and The Voters” Coalition

The presidential election of 2002 is over. President Roh Moo-Hyun of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) is expected to contribute significantly to the consolidation of democracy in Korea and bring about a more just society. During the presidential election, civic groups in Korea concentrated on campaigns to recommend progressive policies to the candidates and to root out corruption by monitoring campaign finances. The ultimate significance of this campaign in terms of future elections is that civic organizations claimed and operated on the basis of political neutrality. Unlike campaigns waged by progressive voters in their 20s and 30s, many of whom have been main supporters of Korean civil movements, the campaign organized by civic organizations did not advocate any particular candidate.

This article is an overview of the activities pursued by Korean civil movements during the presidential election, with a focus on the “Voters’ Coalition 2002”, a group composed of about 400 civic organizations. This article does not cover organizations that did not join the coalition or organizations that joined but campaigned separately.

1. The Inauguration of the Voters’ Coalition 2002

The inaugural ceremony for the Voters’ Coalition 2002 took place at the Young Korean Academy on September 24 , 2002. The coalition was the fruition of efforts by civic groups to form a common platform in the presidential race.

Major civil organizations in Korea, including the Citizen’s Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), Korean Federation of Environmental Movements (KFEM), YMCA, YWCA, and Korea Women’s Association United (KWAU), along with over 400 other organizations, joined the coalition. The entry of CCEJ into the coalition was particularly meaningful, since the coalition included all the major civic groups-CCEJ was not part of the Civil Association for the 2000 General Election in Korea (CAGE).

The Voters’ Coalition originated from Solidarity Network, the successor of CAGE. Launched in April 2002, Solidarity Network, composed of 298 organizations, opened workshops in which activists from around the country discussed plans for the election. As a result of these efforts, Solidarity Network decided to make transition into a new organization based on a membership that reflected a broader spectrum of Korean politics.

According to the operation covenant, the Voters’ Coalition was formed as a temporary organization, designed to operate until the end of December, 2002. Its ultimate goal was to help demise the traditional fissures in the Korean political landscape and to encourage a policy-based electoral debate. In order to better pursue this goal, the Voters’ Coalition claimed political neutrality by confining its membership to “non-governmental, non-profit, and non-partisan” organizations.

2. The Direction of the Voters’ Coalition 2002

As the campaign began to take shape, several disputes arose about which tactics would be most appropriate. Deciding whether or not to employ a blacklisting campaign was the first issue that arose. Some activists argued that civil organizations should conduct a black listing campaign against politicians who were seen as being detrimental to political progress in Korea. This strategy was first employed by CAGE in the 2000 election. However, there were some obstacles to developing a blacklisting campaign in the 2002 presidential election. Unlike the 2000 general election, civic groups were interested more in manifesting the participation of ordinary citizens as a positive support for a candidate rather than negative action to defeat members of the old guard. A blacklisting campaign, while often effective, was seen as -intrinsically-backing certain candidates over others, instead of pursuing broader, systemic reforms.

This conclusion was distinct from the argument that civic groups should neither support nor oppose a specific candidate or party. It was recognized that civic groups could either support or oppose candidates according to their own will. In a move towards establishing a common front, however, the groups involved in the Voters’ Coalition instead decided to focus on achieving a clean, fair and policy-based election, rather than expressing support or opposition to any particular candidates.

Even though past experience showed that a campaign for clean, fair, and policy-based elections would be less visible and less efficient in gaining acceptance, it was also reasoned that a blacklisting campaign would be hard to adopt in the situation involving a presidential election. It is also true that the coalition did not have comprehensive, unified criteria to decide on which candidates would be worthy of support.

In the end, the Voter’s Coalition resolved to designate the year 2002 as “the year of eliminating the old order.”

Elections up to 2002 showed that they often produced political corruption and social disparity through huge campaign expenditures and regionalism.In light of this, the Voters’ Coalition 2002 primarily focused on breaking this cycle of ‘old politics’ and ‘old elections’ in favor of a political paradigm in which victory depends on the policy choices of the candidates.

3. Specific Tasks of the Voters Coalition 2002

The Voters’ Coalition 2002 set up three goals: the ‘elimination of the old political order’; ‘establishment of 10 national tasks’; and ‘development of one million voters’ promise campaign.’

1) The National Campaign for Eliminating the Old Political Order

· This campaign aims to root out old political practices such as money-centered campaigning, regionalism, and corruption.

· Even though all candidates promise to eliminate political corruption in the next administration, the Voters’ Coalition asserted that the elimination of corruption should no longer be postponed. It proposed that anti-corruption laws be passed in the regular parliamentary session before the presidential election and be enacted in congruence with the beginning of the new administration. This was designed to prevent empty promises during the campaign.

·Candidates who campaign on the basis of and in line with this new anti-corruption law would truly be entitled to being called “clean.” . The call for the new law came about because of the need to get rid of the huge amount of expenditure on elections, the origin of many kinds of corruption.

· The Voters’ Coalition 2002 asked that all candidates pledge to enact anti-corruption laws, to break from the usual money- and regionalism-based election campaigns, and to release their campaign finances to the press. The coalition pledged to monitor whether the candidates kept their pledges and announce the result of monitoring to help voters make correct choices in future elections.

2) Ten National Reforms and the Work of Examining Campaign Promises

· The Voters’ Coalition selected ten items for reform through the Internet and a public forum.

· The Voters Coalition developed a campaign called ‘ten promises of hope’ that asked candidates to make ten reformative campaign promises. It is committed to examining and evaluating the implementation of these pledges. This campaign is a new type of voter movement which focuses on pledges and policies, unlike previous strategies which merely attempted to defeat certain candidates.

3) Forming a Coalition of One Million Voters.

· Voters have been forced in recent elections to choose the better of two evils. The Coalition of One Million Voters campaign is aimed at the self-transformation of voters from passive to active.

· This campaign is aimed at inspiring voters to become more conscious of campaign issues, so that they can vote by examining policies and the vision of candidates. It is hoped that this will contribute to a change in Korea’s election culture as well.

· The Voters’ Coalition brought together one million voters through on-line and off-line efforts and sought to help voters to make decisions by providing criteria and information.

· The campaign also aimed at increasing participation rates, especially among younger generations.

4. The Results of The Voters’ Coalition Campaign

1) Elimination of the Old Political Order

The Voters’ Coalition publicly presented documents, including promises to change the political landscape and the plan for doing so, to the four main presidential candidates at the time: Lee Hoi-Chang, Roh Moo-Hyun, Chung Mong-Joon, and Kwon Young-Ghil. These documents asked the candidates to enact reforms and anti-corruption laws in the National Assembly before the presidential election and to publicly release financial information about their campaign.

(1) Failure to Enact Laws Before the Election.

The campaignobtained a degree of success. Each candidate gave positive answers to the eight proposals on enacting anti-corruption and political reform laws. These efforts, however, failed due to actions of the National Assembly. The Grand National Party (GNP), which holds a majority in the National Assembly, was cool towards reform proposals, citing that they tend to restrain the activities of political parties. In the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), presidential candidate Rho Moo-Hyun was unable to sway the legislature because at the time he was in the minority within his own party.

In spite of the failure to implement reform laws, the coalition succeeded in making the necessity of enacting the law for anti-corruption and political reform. The implementation of those laws will now be a priority for the new government.

(2) Campaign Finance Reform Efforts

The three major candidates, Lee Hoi-chang, Rho Moo-hyun, and Kwon Young-ghil, made available the financial handling of their campaigns to public scrutiny for the first time in Korean history. This allowed members of the Voters’ Coalition to inspect campaign books for possible vote-buying schemes and to compare financial statements with activities on the ground.

The three candidates opened their account books and other documents to the ‘ Monitoring Citizen Group’ once a week during the campaign period. The members of the group, including accountants and lawyers, inspected those materials and announced its the results to the media.

In the final wrap-up of Monitoring Citizen Group inspections on December 18, discrepancies were found in GNP candidate Lee Hoi-chang’s campaign, while Rho Moo-hyun’s campaign was proclaimed “relatively honest,” and Kwon Young-ghil’s “honest.” The total election funds used during the campaign were 29.87 billion won for the MDP, 25.36 billion won for the GNP, and 1.12 billion won for the DLP.

Lawyer Won-soon Park, head of the Monitoring Citizen Group, said that “civic movements, while able to make campaign finances public, in the end had to depend on the goodwill of candidates, but still contributed to verify the truthfulness of candidates.” According to Park, the DLP limited prepayment and managed unpaid credit cleanly. The MDP disclosed prepayment and unpaid credit as well as cash expenditures relatively honestly after being criticized in the first inspection. On the other hand, the data from the GNP was insufficient. The GNP opened their files unwillingly and only when the Monitoring Citizen Group specifically asked for information. Sometimes the data it received were insufficient to create a picture of the party activities.

The inspection process produced the following information about the three parties:

The GNP

N The GNP allowed access to only three categories of items out of seven that the monitoring group requested, including prepayment statements. In contrast, both the MDP and the DLP opened their files in all categories.

N The GNP stated that it did not spend money on influencing the press at the beginning of the campaign. When the monitoring group cast doubts on this claim based on the evidence produced from a spot inspection, the GNP publicly released information on the expenditure of 63 million won for the purposes of influencing media outlets.

N When questioned about how the GNP spent less money than other campaigns on supporting local campaigning groups, it presented a factually dubious reply that party-related personnel in each local district or local community leaders sometimes provided food expenses out of their own pockets.

N The GNP stated that it spent 43 million won for acquiring the rights to six songs. This total does not agree with prevailing royalty rates in the industry.

N The GNP stated that it did not spend any money for food expenses of party executives and office workers, in contrast to about 50 million won spent on such expenses by the MDP and 2 million won by the DLP.

The MDP

N The MDP did not provide detailed documentation on prepayment.

N The MDP did not present any materials related to expenditure on newspaper advertisements even after being cited in the first inspection for failing to provide such information.

N The MDP provided incomplete data on campaign finance and about expenditures on subsidies provided for district party chapters.

The DLP showed a high level of honesty and credibility by releasing complete data about revenues and expenditures even before the statutory campaign period. However, the division between party-related costs and expenditures related to the campaign was unclear, and some expenditures over one million won were accounted for too informally.

The Voters Coalition concluded that the current volunteer-based method of accounting for election finances has problems with enforcement, and emphasized that each party should take its stipend from the National Treasury as a use of public funds that must be accounted for transparently and honestly. The Treasury supplied the GNP with a subsidy of 53 billion won, while the MDP got 49 billion Won.

This inspection of campaign finances led by the Voters Coalition is considered to be a new way for civic movements to press the parties to initiate clean campaigns. The information provided by the campaign worked as a main criterion for voters in making their decision.

2) Ten National Reforms and the Campaign to Examine Pledges of Candidates

The Voters Coalition put together a series of reformative tasks for a policy-based election and asked that each candidate take them into his platform.

(1) Ten National Reforms

Over 200 reformative tasks were presented in initial talks among the civic groups, and they were categorized into “three present policies that should be abolished,” “ten core tasks,” and “100 reformative tasks” according to the five criteria of transparency, participation, equality, life and peace, and difference and solidarity.

The National Security Law, cronyism, and corruption were chosen as three main areas of concern. These holdovers from the Cold War order were considered stumbling blocks in the development of political maturity in Korea. The National Security Law, for example, was considered outdated in light of the new detente that exists on the Korean peninsula. Regarding corruption, presidential candidates did not keep their promises to get rid of political corruption and legislate the anti-corruption laws for which they publicly declared support for before the election. Regarding cronyism, the Voters Coalition saw it as unfitting for a democratic society like Korea.

The ten core tasks that the Voters’ Coalition agreed on will hold presidential candidates to clear standards in the next administration. At the same time, these ten core tasks of the Voters’ Coalition were created with a view to creating an agenda for the next administration and will serve as a measure of examining the effectiveness of the candidates and their administrations to carry out the will of the electorate. For example, the stance of candidates on cronyism is viewed as a measure of examining the candidate’s willingness to improve sexual equality. The stance of candidates on the Saemangeum reclamation project is viewed as a measure of the candidate’s commitment to environment. The 100 reformative tasks compiled by the Voters’ Coalition were composed of issues that civic organizations have advocated for the last ten years. They were selected from among over 200 tasks suggested by civic organizations. The final agenda was not selected by a panel of experts, but by civil originations that focus on their social impacts on each particular area. The emphasis of the final agenda was on practicality. Each task was crafted to provide a direction for the creation of a clean society, the realization of equality, the maturing of democracy, and the formation of progressive society in the future.

(2) Evaluations on the Platform of Each Candidate

The Voters’ Coalition evaluated each candidate’s position in regard to the reason for reform on the basis of the previously mentioned criteria. The coalition publicly questioned each candidate’s position and received replies. It also held three televised debates. The outcome was released on December 15th.

After examining the policies of each candidate, it was found that Lee is conservative, while Rho is progressive, and Kwon very progressive. Mr. Lee of the Grand National Party is generally viewed as conservative. However, he can be said to take progressive stances regarding the problems of corruption and Korean-US relations. Mr. Rho of the Millennium Democratic Party is generally viewed as progressive, but has conservative tendencies in the areas of environment, labor, and chaebol (conglomerate) reform. In addition, Rho’s progressiveness was diminished after terminating his coalition with National Alliance 21.

Mr. Kwon of the Democratic Labor Party was seen as a progressive candidate who accepted most of the proposals suggested by civic organizations.

Mr. Lee and Mr. Rho show different approaches to the question of chaebol reform, North-South Korea relations, the National Security Law, and cronyism. Mr. Lee takes stances that favor the current order, while Mr. Rho often favors reforms.

Mr. Lee sides with progressive groups in matters of corruption and the reform of housing policy. The Voters’ Coalition considers that these areas will be improved no matter who is elected.

Areas in which Mr. Lee and Mr. Rho both take stances in favor of the current political dynamic are the issues of the Saemangeum reclamation project, nuclear power, overdevelopment, and labor laws. The Saemangeum reclamation project, which would develop a stretch of Korea’s western coastline as a port, is considered a retrogressive policy considering the worldwide movement to protect wetlands and preserve national resources. On the nuclear issue, civic movements in Korea consider the pursuit of nuclear power as a retrogressive policy that neglects new energy alternatives.

Three candidates have different views on, among others, the pace of decentralization, the adoption of a jury-based legal system, tort reform????, property taxes, revision of the Status Of Forces Agreement with the United States, increase of public funds for the support of national childcare benefits, adoption of (graduated??) childcare support, coherent policies against real estate speculation, and trade policy.

Civil organizations in Korea have pledged to make every effort to ensure that the elected president carries out proposals that were accepted during the election campaign period. Similarly, Korean civil society has resolved to bring other unsolved issues to the table. Candidates are expected throughout this process to keep in mind the efforts and will of civil organizations.

3) The Campaign for Voter Participation

Along with monitoring the election finances and examining the election pledges, the Voters’ Coalition organized the ‘Coalition of One Million Voters.’ This campaign was aimed at encouraging increased participation by voters, thereby change the culture of elections. This movement was developed in two ways: an Internet campaign was launched while a different effort targeted the participation of younger voters. The purpose of this campaign was to oppose regionalism and support policy-based action. The signature drives began in earnest with the cooperation of Daum Communication, the biggest Internet portal company. The result was the registration of more than 100,000 voters, significantly lower than the original target of one million. Still, the campaign was judged to be meaningful in the sense that voters expressed their will to be informed about their choices and to vote in accordance with the information presented by the Voters Coalition.

Another achievement of the campaign was the establishment of absentee voting on college campuses. Although only three of the twenty universities which participated in the campaign were able to establish absentee voting locations on campus, this was a great achievement in that it opened the way for the establishment of campus-based absentee voting for future elections.

5. Conclusion

The Voters’ Coalition achieved many of its goals through election monitoring and pledge evaluation. These achievements were much less visible than those of the CAGE campaign in 2000, but are still a step forward for the cause of political reform in Korea. Perhaps the greatest contribution to future election efforts was a thorough review of campaign finances.

As was mentioned earlier, Korean NGOs have recently lost some credibility in certain circles due to their increasing loss of political neutrality. This election reaffirmed that the role of “defending the people” is increasingly being transferred to political parties as a result of this trend.

Kim Minyoung (Civic Watch, PSPD)

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