Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung has been on a “hunger strike” for 19 days, and his health is deteriorating. His party members are asking him to put a stop to it, but Lee continues to go his own way. We implore him to cease the strike before it is too late, as the potential emergency resulting from the opposition leader’s ill health could have serious implications for politics.
Lee appears to be holding the hunger strike due to the government’s lack of response to his “crusade to stop the domineering governance of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.” However, the demands put forth by the DP in a full meeting are too excessive, including the resignation of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and all Cabinet members. Such unreasonable requests will not be met with sympathy by the public.
Moreover, the DP’s decision to push for the impeachment of prosecutors allegedly involved in corruption appears to be a means of halting the investigation into their own misconduct. Furthermore, speculation has arisen that Lee is attempting to prevent the prosecution from obtaining an arrest warrant for his criminal charges by going on the hunger strike. If his health were to worsen to the point of endangering his life, it could influence the DP legislators’ vote on whether to approve the prosecution’s request for his arrest.
The government and the People Power Party (PPP) have acted inappropriately as well. The presidential office has remained silent on the opposition leader’s strike, and some PPP members have even mocked Lee for his extended period of fasting. However, our political history speaks to a different story. In 1983, when then-opposition leader Kim Young-sam began a hunger strike to demand a Constitutional revision to adopt the direct presidential election system, the secretary general of the governing party delivered President Chun Doo Hwan’s plea to Kim to end the strike. In 2003, when a conservative opposition leader Choe Byung-yul was on a hunger strike, the presidential chief of staff visited him to ask him to discontinue his protest.
We urge the Yoon administration and the PPP to appeal to Lee to cease his strike and engage in dialogue. PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon has already posted on Facebook his plea for Lee to end the strike and meet with him. However, it would be even better for Kim to visit Lee in person to deliver his request. The presidential office must accept the DP as a cooperative partner in order to govern the nation effectively. The voters will ultimately render their verdict in the next parliamentary elections in April.