[민주주의 협력] 한국민주주의스토리텔링 인터뷰 I: 한국 국회의원의 스토리

YouTube 링크 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKg5x_Bj6sE

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동아시아연구원은 국제민주사무소(National Democratic Institute; NDI)의 후원 하에 금년 2020년 7월 착수한 한국민주주의스토리텔링 사업의 일환으로, 21대 초선 국회의원이자 시대전환 소속의 조정훈 의원을 찾아가 한국 민주주의에 대한 인터뷰를 진행하였습니다. 약 15분 정도 길이의 동 인터뷰 영상은 정당 민주주의, 한국 민주주의의 명암, 플랫폼 정치, 디지털 민주주의, 청년층의 정치 참여 등에 대한 내용을 담고 있습니다. 금번 인터뷰 영상은 한국 민주주의의 사례와 교훈을 국내외에 보급하기 위하여 영어로 제작되었으며, 국내 독자들의 이해를 돕기 위하여 국문 자막을 추가하였습니다.

영상 스크립트

uh thanks for the opportunity for this interview um the korean politics has progressed since the korean war history of korean democracy there is ups and downs but overall i think a significant amount of progress has been made however there are many many ways to forward one of the ways one of the things that we need to do better and get better is is to create a sense of diversity within the national assembly so my party transition korea even though we're very small and new uh try to set a foot stone try to

start a new venture for very diverse and mosaic type of korean politics i've been in this national assembly for two months by now meeting a lot of colleagues in the national assembly and media folks as well as general public and citizens and voters and i'm confident that many people consent with me that korean politics will be much better off if we have a very diversity and and different uh political parties that represent different voices so this is one of the things that we will contribute the second part that we like to

contribute to the korean politics is is the practicality or practical aspect of korean politics i believe korean politics has been very dominantly influenced by ideology fact that our korean peninsula has been divided into two part has also contributed to this ideology-based politics however many citizens and voters in korea don't think this ideology is uh is useful to make their everyday life better so instead of ideology fighting our party and myself like to change the korean politics into more solution finding

politics to make everyday life of every average citizen one step better at a time i don't i'm not saying that ideology should disappear immediately sometimes ideology is important and philosophical debate is core element of politics however at this time we really need to bring more practical aspect into korean politics and translation party is all about practical solutions we are very proud to call ourselves solution finder or solution designer so for each project policy issues we will be very free to go into

left-wing solution all the way to right-wing solution to make sure that we find the right tools and solutions to solve the problem so we will contribute in two ways in some first we will try to transform the polarized two-party systems into multi-party system to reflect diversified views of citizens the second is will try to change korean politics from ideology based fighting into solution finding debate the korea is very proud of our democracy overall i think korea is leading in terms of democracy in the whole asia

it comes with price and many citizens are well aware of that you ask two questions in what aspect korean democracy is doing well i think we managed to create a reality and consensus that the owner of this land and this country is citizen the power comes from citizens we don't have any more kings or queens everyone voice their views and opinions and if even though president is elected by our vote if he or she does not reflect our priorities and opinion we can impeach them and we did and we do we did it without

uh relying on violence uh i think that is one of the most remarkable aspects of korean democracy and it is more remarkable if you consider that this peninsula has had a thousand years of kingdom with very strong sense of hierarchy and it's not that this this place has no governance regime we have a very strong legacy of kingdom and very vertical line hierarchical communication as well as social system and through the korean war through a number of historical events i think our people have managed to transform

that into very democratic and to some extent parallel system of power distribution however there is always shortcomings the points i made just now is also part of our downside of korean politics we still think politics can probably solve everything and when we find something not working we always call on co-op and politics i don't believe that there are certain things that economy can solve themselves there are certain things education should solve themselves there are certain things our community

collectively should solve but we tend to think if anything goes wrong it's the problem of politics and politicians should be blamed for um so we really have to make a good balance and i think korean citizens and politics realize this demand and step by step gradually are making that adjustment uh platform politics is is rather new term to korean politics as well as citizens um i think there's nothing new but the the aspect we want to emphasize more is the party which is very important institution to run politics

traditionally has been dominated by very few top leaders if not one and if that person decide the party just follows or endorse the policies and political actions i don't think that model fits well with korean society today we try to emphasize more the bottom-up aspect of communication and decision-making if we call the today or past politics is top-down from top leader all the way down to the bottom platform party is bartoma so i am a member of the transition party i do not decide our parties policy

myself alone i rely on the opinions and voices yesterday i was one of the 11 members of parliament asking questions to the cabinet members of the government everybody prepared very well for that opportunity my uh one of the my highlights was to ask questions to our constituency i was elected i was selected as one of the questioners for this session what questions do you want to add do you want me to ask to vice to vice prime minister and prime minister in terms of economic policies and i receive a lot of feedback

a lot of feedbacks and i prepare my questions based on that and this is one of the examples you might think that this isn't normal but it is actually not normal in korean politics once members are elected it's pretty much detached from the constituency when it comes to policy but platform party links uh constantly uh and and regularly and due to and thanks to the technology it's possible now without much cost offline meeting comes with premium these days because of coffee 19 but online meeting is more easy

to to express your opinions and get feedback so we are now in good touch with international partners such as podemos and five-star parties in italy uh to learn their experiences and lessons and to reflect them in designing our platform parties we are going to officially launch this platform party pla model and system in the fall of 2020 so we will launch it and i hope that everybody will get excited about it this is very important questions and the serious threat for very healthy and positive distilled

democracy there are two things we need to do together first the leaders should not trigger or instigate popularism through digital democracy it's very tempting and because of digital devices nature you can pretty much choose what you want to hear which is very different from all day media when there's only few media choices you just have to listen to what they're saying and some part you like some part you don't like this is because there are thousands of media outlet there out there you can avoid listening what you don't

want to and you can just select and choose what you want to hear which means for every member of national assembly or politicians there's a group of people who support you no matter what and you are now fantasized that whatever i say everybody will like it whatever mistake i make people will accept it which is not true so i think as a member of the national assembly or politicians you should be always visible and mindful that the general public out there is not the same as your close supporters the second

we need some systematic even technical guidelines it is very um recommendable and and acceptable that you disagree with certain opinions but it is not acceptable to do so with personal attack and privacy violation and there's a certain line you cannot cross to be a member of a mature democratic system and if you cross the line you will have to pay the price and this is the rule of the game everybody has to accept and i think our society has a little bit more strong and a little tough to to discipline these guidelines so that

the conversations inside digital device digital world is more productive and forward-looking instead of finger-pointing and criticizing each other in a very negative non-productive way politics is nothing but life itself as long as you decide to live in a society instead of going to the mountain or island to live yourself politics is something that you cannot get away however the way politics influence or interact with society has changed dramatically in old days a few very brave heroes go to the politics

and sacrifice their lives entirely and live for their countries it's like it's like um autography a biography right it's a hero story equals politics i don't think it should be the case anymore politics is for everyday life people have their jobs and professions 10 years 15 years 20 years and through their lives they find certain issues certain things must change and they really want to change that thing for themselves for their next generation for the society that's the motivation for joining politics

and then you can come to political world and do your job and changing that changing this and then if you are done with your mission you go back to your own normal life and carry on your normal life so i really think politics and non-political society should be more interactive these days in old days even though and today including even though the degree has go down uh people tend to think politicians are special species they're very special and normal people and politicians are different people i don't think that is the case anymore

i'm very normal i always average citizens until just a few until a few months is back now i'm a member of paulo national assembly when my term is over i will go back and resume my life as normal citizens i have no qualm and no problem with it and because of that i declined i denied being called him which is very respectful word in this national assembly every step of my office call me jonghyun and i insist the media folks and media people described me as jungling because this is the name i will carry

even after my term is over and member of paul national assembly even though this is honorable time it's temporary so i really like to encourage young generation to think about politics if you find something not satisfactory to your uh your view and come to the politics and do your best to change this and change that and i think this will give you a sense of satisfaction and you go back to your where you came from and then carry on your life in that way the politics become more dynamic and more easy entry therefore

more responsive to the normal citizens and i think this kind of practical aspects of politics is what other countries in asia might aspire to ideology-based hero based politics is done young generation in almost all countries are not really interested in that kind of story so i hope that every democracy aspiring countries will make sure that the politics is often for everybody including young generation and and get the best power of democracy thank you