By Do Je-hae
One of the things that has set President Moon Jae-in apart from his predecessors is that his popularity rating has enjoyed a stable level throughout his presidency since May 2017.
But latest surveys reflect a noticeable loss of public confidence in President Moon and his administration in the past few weeks due to some glaring policy missteps, including those related to real estate.
However, the increased disappointment is not with the missteps themselves but the “two-faced” attitude and discordance between words and actions by some of the President's key aides and ranking government officials. The disappointment stems from the fact that the Moon administration was launched under the banner of “fairness and justice.”
This hypocrisy was highlighted by the recent controversy surrounding chief of staff Noh Young-min, who belatedly followed his own recommendation he had made late last year for senior presidential aides owning more than one home to sell off all properties other than their main residence. The recommendation came in response to rising public discontent toward the government's failure to contain soaring housing prices.
When Cheong Wa Dae announced earlier this month that the chief of staff would sell one of his two homes, the public became even more angry because the decision to sell a less lucrative apartment in Cheongju, South Chungcheong Province, was seen as a move to retain a more valuable property in Seoul's Seocho-gu. Yoon Seong-won, presidential secretary for land, infrastructure and transport, was criticized for a similar move, trying to keep a more expensive property in southern Seoul instead of a house in Sejong City, the nation's as-yet underdeveloped administrative capital.
These cases have undermined the people's trust in the President and his government's policy-making regarding real estate, a highly sensitive area for many working families in Korea toiling with stagnant incomes and soaring taxes, as well as young people losing hope for finding a job and owning a home amid one of the worst economic crises since the late 1990s.
Many who have abandoned their initial support for Moon say they feel betrayed by his administration's incompetence regarding the real estate issue, among other policy priorities. “I used to support him at the beginning of his presidency but have lost faith in him and his administration due to the real estate fiasco among Cheong Wa Dae officials,” a citizen of Gwangjin-gu, eastern Seoul, said on condition of anonymity.
“In the case of housing, Moon gave the impression that somehow he was going to take a stand for the needs of the common people, but he was not willing to take any risks at all, certainly not ready to stand up to powerful interests. So ultimately he did not accomplish much at all,” Emanuel Pastreich, president of the Asia Institute, told The Korea Times.
Losing faith in liberal politics
The housing policy controversy was only one part of criticisms leveled at the Moon administration for being “two-faced” and betraying the party's espoused core values, such as social equality and justice that the President has resolutely preached before and after his election to the nation's highest office.
Moon's emphasis on promoting justice and fairness across society was one of the characteristics that captured Korean voters who were fed up with the previous conservative administrations of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, both who ended up in prison and the latter who was impeached over corruption scandals.
| President Moon Jae-in speaks during an event to promote his new core economy policy 'New Deal' in South Jeolla Province, July 17. Yonhap |
But with the corruption scandals of Moon's former aide and former Justice Minister Cho Kuk last year, some supporters began to rethink their trust in the Moon administration, and further in the liberal bloc. Many Koreans were enraged by the preferential treatment Cho's children allegedly received in their academic careers and other alleged illegal gains involving the former law professor and his family members, which have hampered the President's initial drive for “judicial reform.”
“Corruption scandals involving ranking officials are not new because we have seen many such cases in previous administrations. But seeing the Cho case and ruling bloc members defending him, I was more disappointed because they are the ones who promised to root out the evils of society. Now I know they are no different from the figures in the conservative bloc,” said a woman in her 40s who said she was an avid supporter of Moon when the administration was launched.
Opinion polls also reflect such public sentiment. The approval rating for the President, which jumped to nearly 70 percent in mid-April due to the nation's exemplary COVID-19 response, has continued to fall ever since and has now dropped to 44.1 percent, Thursday, according to the latest survey by Realmeter; 51.7 of respondents gave a negative assessment of Moon's job performance.
The survey also showed even his core support group, such as people in their 30s, women and voters in Seoul, are turning their backs on the President, raising fears of a “lame duck” presidency well before it comes to an end in May 2022.
“South Korean presidents start off as effective lame ducks, as they're limited to a single term. Hence any president maintaining their popularity is an uphill battle from the get-go. But as for current specifics, South Koreans are increasingly frustrated with their lack of job prospects and affordable housing opportunities,” Sean King, Asian politics expert from New York-based consulting firm Park Strategies, told The Korea Times.
With the latest controversy over Moon's real estate policy and the series of #MeToo scandals hitting some of its star politicians, the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), which won a sweeping victory in the general election only three months ago, is also suffering a huge blow in its popularity. Critics point out a crisis of liberal politics ahead of by-elections next April as well as the presidential election in March 2022, as time is running out on Moon's presidency to significantly turn things around and revive the sagging public trust in him and his party.
“The general corrupt environment in Korean politics gets worse and worse and there is little difference between the conservatives and the liberals in this respect,” Pastreich said. “It will also be critical to them to suggest that as ineffective as they may be, that the conservatives have no new or effective ideas. This argument was successful in the election and in that such attacks on conservatives lead citizens to think that as bad as the economy may be, it is still better than it would be under the conservatives ― this strategy will be important for them. It is too late in the term to do anything big.”