In the opposition Democratic United Party, one leading member after another is declaring his candidacy for the presidential nomination. But the party has yet to fix the rules for the primary.

Worse still, it is gripped by a disheartening belief that it cannot win the presidential race on its own and that it needs outside help if it wishes to compete against the ruling Saenuri Party. Nothing illustrates better than this defeatism than the opposition party’s position ahead of the December presidential election.

Rep. Moon Jae-in, a confidant of the late President Roh Moo-hyun, announced on Sunday that he would seek the party’s presidential nomination. More are set to join him and two others in the race ― former party leader Sohn Hak-kyu and a lawmaker, who said last week that they would participate in the primary.

Of no less concern to the party than who wins that race is whether or not professor Ahn Cheol-soo of Seoul National University, one of the most popular presidential hopefuls, will participate in the selection process. But Ahn remains vague about his presidential candidacy, not to mention his participation in the opposition party’s primary.

Still, the party proposes to establish the rules for its own primary next month, select its nominee in September and hold another primary to select a nominee representing an alliance of opposition forces from among its standard-bearer, Ahn and others. The party’s leader, Rep. Lee Hae-chan, says his party needs to adopt a two-tier selection process and ally itself with other groups because it cannot defeat the ruling party on its own.

Last year, the party took a similar selection process, in which its mayoral nominee was defeated by Park Won-soon, a civic activist. Park won the post of Seoul mayor. It was a humiliating experience for the party. But the problem was that the party did not take it as such.

For his part, Ahn will now have to stop beating around the bush, and make public whether or not to run for the presidency and, if he decides to run, say in unmistakable terms whether he will go it alone or accept the party’s proposal. As the party’s leader recently noted, his decision is already long overdue. He should be reminded that it takes a long time to vet his capacity for leadership.