[Editorial] Inappropriate Anger from Political Leaders

While the ruling camp is in a state of discord over the recent cabinet shuffle, the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) is experiencing internal conflict over its campaign against the revision to the Private School Law. It started after an interview with the magazine Hankyoreh 21 by GNP supreme council member Won Hee Ryong, when he said, "chairwoman Park Geun Hye's ideological bias is a disease."

It would have been hard to imagine such "insubordination" in the past, but it is happening in both the ruling and main opposition parties. In some ways it looks like evidence that there has been progress in the democratization of the country's political parties.

If you look at the larger context of it all, the responses of president Roh Moo Hyun and chairwoman Park are similar. At first Roh said he would go through a process of finding agreement with the ruling party's leadership about appointing party member Rhyu Si Min as the next health and welfare minister, only to turn around and suddenly name Rhyu anyway because "appointing ministers is the unique authority of the president." Park, in turn, furiously says that Won "went too far" and eventually got him to apologize. Their reactions are similar in that they lack what it takes to be able to listen to internal criticism.

Won's criticism, in fact, is not exclusively his own and he speaks for a considerable number of people in the GNP. There is a no small amount of doubt about the way Park has gone on "ideological offensive" at every opportunity. At a GNP caucus last month many members took issue with her strategy and suggested the party stop its street campaigns. She went so far as to shed tears to quiet the criticism at the time, but that never meant the doubts have disappeared.

Park was very displeased with the directness of Won's attack, but she needs to listen to his complaints. He needs to see that indiscriminate red-baiting does not receive absolute support, even from within her own party. There are always limits to how much you can suppress opinion among the party membership.

The Hankyoreh, 6 January 2006.

[Translations by Seoul Selection]