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Park Geun-hye comes out after volunteering to distribute lunches to disabled

people at a welfare center in north Seoul, June 22. (by Lee Jeong-ah, staff photographer)

 

As former dictator’s daughter prepares presidential bid, she leads all candidates in support

 

Nobody‘s talking about a “bubble” anymore.

 

Her support ratings stand at well over 40%. The public already sees her as the New Frontier Party (NFP) candidate in December’s presidential election. There were no takers for the “Lee Myung-Park Geun-hye” comparisons. There’s been none of the “handicap” that has seen so many ruling parties reeling under late-term revelations of corruption. The word “love” is used to describe her, which is unique among the current crop of contenders. Why does the public love Park Geun-hye?

 

The NFP lawmaker’s support numbers are solid. They’re also the product of years of steady building. She hasn’t lost her front-runner status since 2008. Since 2010, she has seldom earned anywhere below 30% of public support. She has a solid base with the Yeongnam region, among conservatives, and older and less educated voters. This base is estimated to represent about 35% all by itself, but she’s also attracting votes from moderates.

 

Let’s take a brief trip back to 2004, when Park was chairwoman of the Grand National Party (the predecessor of today’s NFP). She performed above and beyond expectations as a relief pitcher for a party that was bearing the full brunt of a backlash for an impeachment drive against then-President Roh Moo-hyun. During the 17th National Assembly, she answered the administration and Uri Party’s four items of reform legislation with a defense centering on “national identity.”

 

But even after she took on her new identity as the conservatives’ darling, the public didn’t much take to the conservative instincts she showed. Her support levels dropped to the low teens. She went on to make a roaring comeback, becoming the so-called “election queen” with sweeping wins in various by-elections. She solidified her standing as the leader of Yeongnam and a representative of conservatives. Yet in the 2007 GNP primary, she fell short in polls against a challenger, Lee Myung-bak, who had an image of moderate pragmatism after a run as mayor of Seoul.

 

Her support has tended to grow when she has been outside the party’s mainstream. With the real opposition in a mess, the former chairwoman took the role of opposition upon herself. In late 2009, she voted down President Lee’s attempt to reduce construction of a new administrative capital city in Sejong, South Chungcheong province. When she sat on the sidelines during the 2010 municipal elections, the GNP ended up suffering a drubbing.

 

It was the general elections this past April that proved decisive, though. Nobody was expecting the ruling party to win there, yet Park took the mound as relief pitcher and once again scored an NFP majority. Her support ratings rose above 40%.

 

Successfully manufactured images　

 

“Park Geun-hye has built her support one step at a time, without making any big mistakes,” said Korea Society Opinion Institute (KSOI) chief analyst Yoon Hee-woong. “This is not the kind of support you get from image alone.”

 

Of course, her public image has always been distinct from other politicians. Before there was Park Geun-hye the politician, South Koreans knew her as the daughter of Park Chung-hee and Yuk Young-soo. Her pedigree is a major factor in her popularity. People who are not inclined to accept her widespread support dismiss her as a “dictator’s daughter,” but she is unquestionably seen by many as a veritable princess who overcome tragedy and oppression. This is why older people who remember the Park Chung-hee era and shared the experience of overcoming poverty, as well as low earners who want some solace in their deprivation, hold hands and cry when they see the daughter of the onetime President and First Lady.

 

Park made a deep impression on the public with the things that count politically. She instilled an image of dedication with her emotionally laden “tent-bound party headquarters” style, while showing her ability to overcome crisis through achieving her election goals. Even when she lost the primary in 2007, the sight of her associates being dropped from the nominations one after another made her appear to the public as a victim of the powerful, and she proved her weight by scoring a major chunk of election wins nonetheless. By following through on her position in favor of discarding the revised Sejong plan, she left the image of someone principled, someone who kept her promises. With the 19th general elections, the public once again saw the Park who is strong in crisis situations.

 

She is also seen as appealing to the public with her restrained manner of speaking. It is often mentioned how after being attacked and suffering a knife wound to the face during the 2006 local elections, she still expressed concern about the elections, asking, “What about Daejeon?” The common complaint that politicians only open their mouths to make promises they can’t keep does not apply to her. She has built confidence in her methods through her political activities and their results. She was voted most trusted of the current presidential contenders in a May 28-29 poll by the East Asia Institute and Hankook Research, and in every one of their polls since 2009. The intransigent image that emerged in a recent controversy over whether to change or keep the NFP’s existing primary rules does not appear to have had any impact on her numbers. 　

 

Her drawbacks are offset by her strengths 　

 

“What other politicians see as intransigence can come across to the public as authority or charisma,” said RealMeter president Lee Taek-soo.

 

Further contributing to her standing are the respective images of the Lee administration, which is seen as unprincipled and greedy, and the opposition parties, which are seen as having little to show for their desperate efforts.

 

The “dictator’s daughter” blasts also seem to have had little impact. Park has established herself as an independent political figure rather than as someone basking in the halo of her still-much-admired parents. If it is a drawback for her, it is offset by her other strengths. In this sense, her situation is similar to that of Lee during the 2007 presidential election, when many people said the good he was likely to do for the economy was enough to make up for any ethical concerns.

 

So what is the public looking for from Park Geun-hye? If voters projected their desire for reform and change on Roh Moo-hyun in 2002 and their hope for a stronger economy on Lee in 2007, then it isn’t exactly clear what they hope Park will give them.

 

“It’s not so much that she inspires the belief that she will do especially well in any one area,” said Yoon Hee-woong. “She has more of a ‘comparative advantage’ image, where people think she’ll be better than the other hopefuls in all different areas.”

 

In a June 29-30 poll by the Hankyoreh and KSOI, Park received 42.5% of votes of as the candidate who would “be the best leader in all areas of governance.” This put her far ahead of second-place finisher Ahn Cheol-soo, who drew 15.1%, and was similar to her overall support rating of 42.1%.

 

She also placed first, albeit with lower rates of response, on questions about which candidate would “best achieve national unity” (36.0%) and “best lead the economy” (32.6%). In other words, while she comes across as someone who would do well in all areas of governance, she has yet to show whether she can be particularly strong at any other thing.

 

However solid her support levels have been, they could change once the public starts making more concrete demands in the areas of economic democracy and inequality, both of which are expected to be major issues in this year’s presidential elections. This is the reason Park is trying to claim the issue by enlisting the services of former lawmaker Kim Jong-in to play up her economic democracy image and emphasize working class welfare.

 

Another thing that could affect her support is the conservative “true colors” she showed in the makeup of the election measures committee for the NFP presidential primary, which was announced on July 5.