[Opinion] Formal Bows of Respect and Party Room Politics

The politics of formal bows of respect to the elder of former president Kim Dae-jung became a hot issue on New Year’s Day. As Kim, who rarely stepped outside after retirement, opened his house at Donggyo-dong upon entering 2004, it is said that more than 1,500 people rushed to his residence to give him a formal New Year’s bow of respect. Although Kim declared his policy of noninvolvement in politics, the media has tried to catch the “intervene” of “nonintervention” contained in his words and behavior by using expressions like “the DJ style politics of doing nothing” and “DJ effects in the coming national election in April.”

It is no exaggeration to say that Korean politics until the era of the “Three Kims” was the politics of formal bows of respect to the elder. Important decisions were made at the group’s meeting held at the party room of the leader’s house every morning, and the official meeting acted just to confirm the decision like a puppet organization. At those times, reporters as well as politicians went to work at the leader’s house. The house of former president Yun Bo-seon, which was Korean-style and located at Anguk-dong, appeared to be the last stage that showed the classical politics of the party room. As the residence pattern changed into western styles, the stage of politics handed over the baton to parlors; however the true nature of politics has not changed at all. Considering the feature that the politics relied on the unofficial clique and fees, “parlor politics” is no different from the politics of the party room.

The true nature of politics is the attainment of compromise through dialogue and discussion. This was found in salons and cafes in Paris and clubs in the U.K. where genuine modern politics stemmed in the 18th to 19th century. Those places were for holding conversations and discussions with all kinds of people transcending gender and classes rather than socializing places for the noble class. C. Montesquieu used to put “holding a salon” on a par with “leading the conversation,” and the words like “salons” were used interchangeably with “conversations.” Here, the seeds for the French Revolution sprouted.

Party rooms and parlors of the group’s leader that have been at the core of Korean politics till recent times hold no similarities with the Western salons and cafes. Party rooms and parlors were the homes of decision and conspiracy far from free conversations and discussions. The ill party room politics transformed into the politics of formal bows of respect early this year. Formal bows of respect had no problems as good tradition and manner, but it became politics of formal bows of respect to the elder combining the party room politics. The Three Kims’ Era of politics has gone. I wish for the politics of the party room to ends its phase, too.

Kim Il-young, Editorial Writer, Professor of Sungkyunkwan University

iykim@skku.edu