South Korean politicians play hide-and-seek

In South Korea’s raucous politics, there has been one well-known gimmick favored by the nation’s power brokers to prove their point and turn things around: Going into hiding until someone finds you.

Over the weekend, the ruling Saenuri Party’s interim leader Kim Hee-ok vacated his seat and stayed home to protest against the party’s decision to accept its defectors. The former justice threatened to leave his post, saying that the decision-making process was “undemocratic” and “offensive” to his leadership. 

The political standoff was resolved on Sunday after the Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk came to see him in person near his house and offered an apology with a deep bow. Only then did the interim leader agree to return to work after three days in seclusion.

The 67-year-old politician’s actions stand in the tradition of using the hide-and-seek strategy during political tug-of-war. From the recent precedent of Rep. Kim Chong-in of The Minjoo Party of Korea to the more distant past case of late President Kim Young-sam, high-flying politicians, when cornered, often relied on the tactic.

“It works like an ace when playing politics,” said Yoon Tae-gon, a senior political analyst at Moa Agenda Strategy. “The politicians have employed the strategy as a last resort when (they deem) democratic process such as dialogue and debate doesn’t work,” he said.

Former President Kim Young-sam is one of the savvy politicians who used the tactic to push his agenda. When Kim was a leader of then-ruling Democratic Liberal Party in 1990, he refused to serve his post and stayed at home to protest the move to adopt the Japanese-style parliamentary system.

The democratic crusader considered the constitutional change to adopt the Japanese-style system as a threat to his bid for single five-year-term presidency. He refused to work for 12 days as the party leader until then president Roh Tae-woo caved in and withdrew his bid to amend the Constitution. 

Recent hiding by the high-rank politicians, however, have come with relatively less grand causes. Today, it is more often used to express discomfort at challenges to their leadership, especially by those considered backbenchers.

Last March, The Minjoo Party’s chairman Rep. Kim Chong-in went into hiding in protest against the party’s rank-and-file member’s public criticism of him assigning himself a top candidacy for a proportional representation. Kim had refused to serve his post until the members offered him an apology.

Analysts noted that the effectiveness of “going into hiding” is contingent upon how much political leverage the politician has, and thus the strategy works best when they carry legitimate causes.

“It is similar to how blackmailing works,” said Kim Min-jeon, a political science professor at Kyung Hee University. “Their threat to resign gains weight when those politicians are perceived to be too important to be ignored,” she said.

For instance, former President Kim got his way by taking the chance. Before being elected as the ruling party leader, Kim was known as the nation’s most vocal democratic activist. In 1983, he staged a 23-day hunger strike to condemn then President Chun Doo-hwan’s suppression of democratic movement.

His symbolic role made him one of the most prominent politicians in the ruling party and convinced the party members to rally behind his maneuvers. Two years after playing hide-and-seek, Kim won the 1992 presidential election.

When done with less cause, the impact of the seclusion strategy is reduced, as is the case with Saenuri’s Kim, who is a respected jurist but a novice politician, having just entered politics earlier this month.

Although he came back to lead the party on Monday, some disgruntled Saenuri members blamed the interim chief for worsening the factional strife by catering to the needs of the faction led by President Park Geun-hye. .

“Kim’s decision looks to be solely for saving face for President Park. What he did was questioning the decision made through democratic procedure,” professor Kim Min-jeon said.

By Yeo Jun-suk jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)