President for all

Moon should adopt partnership in governance

Moon Jae-in of the largest Democratic Party of Korea couldn’t take office as president in more trying times — the country is besieged by big challenges from within and without.

Rising from the ideological battlefield with bruises from identity politics and burns from dog whistling, all wrapped by name calling, lies and backstabbing, was the new liberal president. His election ended the nine years of conservative rule.

The road to his election may have been confusing but his mission as the new head of state isn’t.

President Moon owes the election to his liberal outpouring of support. From day one — today — as president, he shouldn’t settle for being the leader only for them. He needs to work for his detractors, those who didn’t vote for him, as well. President Moon should aim not to be “my president or your president but become the president for all.”

Only months ago, downtown Seoul and places across the nation were filled by millions of candlelit protesters indignant at the colossal scale of incompetence and hoodwinking of the Park Geun-hye government. Then, it was joined by counter-protesters who pushed back in an attempt to keep Park in power.

The following campaign cauldron came to a boil as the candidates engaged in red-baiting and threats of retaliation. Moon ended up inheriting a basket case of a nation that will remain stuck, not moving forward or backward, if he insists on partisan politics as usual.

Cooperative rule is key

In the current balance of power shared by four parties at the National Assembly, without their support, he can’t even install a new prime minister without whom a new Cabinet can’t be formed. He can’t afford such a delay when the nation has suffered months of a power vacuum left by his predecessor, depriving it of coherent rule and making it the object of international mockery.

So it is imperative to reach out to his rival candidates and opposition parties neither with the winner’s hubris nor with vengeance in mind but with a genuine proposal for partnership — recognizing their role of checks-and-balances provider and asking them for help in a grand reconciliatory effort.

This partnership can only lead to the healing of the nation, at the same time broadening his mandate beyond partisan limitations. With the bigger political capital bestowed on him, Moon can get devoted to the urgent tasks at hand.

North Korea tops his priorities’ list. Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs pose an existential threat to us. It has threatened to use them against our nation and is now on a collision course with the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has not excluded the use of force, claiming that the North’s weapons of mass destruction will soon threaten his country. Despite it being most influenced by any change of the status quo, Seoul has been bypassed by Trump who only seeks counsel with China, and the North that refuses to treat us as dialogue partner.

NK to test new president

Besides, Pyongyang is a very hot ideological issue at home — the disgraced President Park took a great deal of flak for ditching a conciliatory approach and going for a hard-line confrontational stance — closing the inter-Korean business project, the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and leading in international sanctions.

Now, Moon’s job is to weave through a minefield of the conflicting interests of the U.S. and China and find a negotiated settlement, which, in the end, is bound to amount to a nuclear and missile moratorium in the North.

That also means avoiding a catastrophic military clash on the Korean Peninsula and the restoration of Seoul’s role as a key stakeholder. Reaching this point requires our president to have many sleepless lonely nights, rely on the best of his tact and strong gut, and a sense of duty.

Also equally important is the economic agenda about getting the nation out of the slippery slope of the “middle income trap,” and lessening the acute inequality in wealth distribution. In principle, few disagree on this but, in detail — chaebol reform or labor market flexibility — any agreement is a rare commodity. Plus, the external situation involving Korea’s key trading partners is not helping as the U.S. is flexing its protectionist muscles on its free trade agreement with us, and China is mixing politics with trade over Korea’s deployment of a U.S. missile interceptor.

For Moon it is worth remembering what the late President Roh Moo-hyun, his former boss, once said — “One big realization I have come to as president is that he has very few things he can do alone.”

He would best communicate more with people, share the burden and pool wisdom together. Moon may succeed where his mentor and friend had failed. We the people know that his success is our success as well and wish him the best of luck.