“The Illusion of Clean Politics in Netflix’s Drama <퀸메이커> & the Need for Vision in Third Zone Politics”

Cho Hye-jeong ㅣPolitical Team Leader
(*This article contains spoilers for the drama.) “I will close the counting. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!” In line with the voice of the news presenter, officials gathered in front of the TV at the office of the Election Commission sing a countdown chorus. “One!” As soon as the sound ends, what fills the screen is a computer graphic showing that National Reform Party candidate Oh Gyeong-sook won the election with 84.2% of the vote. huh? The countdown to the counting deadline? Even if South Korea conducts electronic voting, it is impossible. This is a 99.9% chance of turning the ‘exit poll results’ released by broadcasters right after the ‘voting’ deadline into ‘vote counting’ and actual ‘election results’. Laughter broke out. It happened while watching the last episode of the Netflix drama that human rights lawyer Oh Kyeong-suk met Hwang Do-hee, a fixer who was in charge of all sorts of messy things for her conglomerate family, and after twists and turns, she became the mayor of Seoul. Even without all the elements of drama criticism, such as composition, setting, characters, and directing, the perspective and content of this drama dealing with elections and politics are problematic. First of all, this drama seems to show the illusion that ‘clean politics’ will win, but the core sentiment underlying it is political hatred. The premise that politicians, regardless of political party, are all vested interests who have been corrupted by impostors, inevitably calls for ‘new blood’ that has not been stained by this board. The story of Oh Kyeong-sook, a newcomer to politics, dramatically winning her Seoul mayoral election was thus born.

Geum Tae-seop, former member of the Democratic Party of Korea (left), Kim Jong-in, former People’s Power Emergency Response Committee member, and Democratic Party member Lee Sang-min, who attended the first debate of the ‘Reflection and Search Forum for a Different Future’ held on April 18 at the National Assembly Members’ Hall. yunhap news

Of course, this mechanism also works in real politics. The ‘Third Zone Theory’, which appears before major elections, is a typical example. The theory of the third zone gains strength when the dominant evaluation is that the ruling party did something wrong and the opposition party did nothing well, and when the number of shamans who say they do not support either party increases. Recently, former lawmaker Tae-seop Geum, who was also a member of the Minjoo Party of Korea and was also active on the election committee of President Seok-yeol Yoon, launched a ‘reflection and search forum for a different future’ (reflection and search) and created a new party with the goal of securing 30 seats in the metropolitan area in the general election next year. I said I would. It is aimed at the shamans who have lost their place of mind, recording around 30% this year. The conditions for the establishment of a new party in the third zone appear to be ripe. It seems to have grasped the hearts of voters well. But there is something missing. So what are you going to do? In a forum for reflection and search on the 18th, Rep. Geum Jeon said that the new party should “become a ‘light body’ that presents its own vision, rather than finding its reason for existence by becoming a ‘reflector’ that opposes and criticizes the behavior of existing parties.” Emphasized. That’s right. Even non-partisan people do not vote just with the feeling that they don’t like this person and that they don’t. Even if another force that surpasses the existing one and the other appears, it is necessary to show values ​​and visions about what kind of world they want to create to determine their attitude, whether they agree or criticize. This is why there has been no case of pushing for political reform or winning the election, although parties and figures claiming to be the third zone have constantly appeared in the last 20 years. This is because he jumped into politics only with the ‘antithesis’ (antithesis) of ‘anti○ nonx’. An anti-proposition, which can exist only with a proposition, is inherently difficult to be an alternative. Nevertheless, introspection and search still remain in the antithesis. “The current shaman class is a different ‘learned shaman class’ from the past. Rep. Geum Jeon’s remarks (interview on the 24th) show this. Oh Gyeong-sook in the drama only repeated her anti-proposition that she was opposed to the redevelopment of her opponent candidate Baek Jae-min throughout the Seoul mayoral election, and she was elected Seoul mayor with negative elections such as ’emperor parenting suspicion’ and ‘infidelity exposure’. Don’t mistake this for reality. Opposition and criticism are not only within the realm of the media and civic groups, and even though they may hear that they are stuck in a frame, they come up with alternatives. Even more so, politics that promises to take responsibility for the lives of the people must compete with values ​​and visions. Oh Gyeong-sook said she could not be the mayor of Seoul. zesty@hani.co.kr