At least outwardly
Newly elected Chairman Moon Jae-in of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD)indicated that he will steer the NPAD on the course of a party of the practical middle-of-the-roaderswith a slogan, “New Moon Jae-in Plan”to prepare the party to be fit to take over the control of government in the next elections for the National Assembly next year and for the President in 2017.
Moon and his faction in the NPAD lost a considerable number of supports among the middle-of-the-roaders and reform-minded conservatives because of his call for alliance with the United Progressive Party during the 2012 National Assembly general elections, which was opposed to the Korea-US free trade agreement and construction of the Jeju Naval Port.
Obviously mindful of this experience, Moon emphasized during his campaign the leadership of the NPAD that livelihood and economy of the common people was more important than ideology. He said, “I am going to make NPAD a party dedicated to the recovery of the people’s economy.”
Moon also told his followers in the NPAD that he will try to erase his image as a pro-Roh Moo-hyun hardliner but one who looks after the conscientious conservatives as well as the centrists.
Moon is expected to wield a considerable measure of influence in the nomination of candidates for the National Assembly general elections next year and as soon as he succeeds in winning the satisfactory number of members in the parliament, he is expected to resign as chairman of the NPAD in order to prepare himself as the NPAD Presidential candidate for the Presidential election in the following 2017.
Before joining the political arena, Moon had worked together with the late former progressivePresident Roh Moo-hyun as ‘human rights lawyer’ in defense of the people who did not have money to hire a lawyer.
After Roh’s election as President, Moon joined the Presidential Mansion of Cheong Wa Dae as senior Presidential secretary for civil affairs and then as chief secretary.
Moon was elected as new chairman of the NPAD at the party’s national convention in Seoul on Feb. 8, 2015 winning 45.3% of the total number of votes followed by Rep. Park Ji-won with 41.78% and Rep. Lee In-young with 12.92%.