[Editorial] Disconcerted start

President Park Geun-hye recently took a right step inductive to social integration by voicing opposition to a local government’s plan to set up a park around her family’s former residence in Seoul in tribute to her father and late President Park Chung-hee. Otherwise, she would have unnecessarily fanned criticism over the project by a district office to build a memorial park around the house, where the elder Park, then an Army general, lived for three years before he seized power in a 1961 coup.

Critics have defined the project as an attempt to glorify the late leader, one of the country’s most divisive figures ― praised by supporters as a hero who pulled the nation out of poverty, but denounced by detractors as an iron-fisted dictator.

During a meeting with her secretaries early this week, Park said, “It is not desirable to use taxpayers’ money to establish a memorial park at a time when the national economy is in hardship.” She further reflected the sentiment held by most people by stressing the plan should be pursued in a way that does not cost too much money.

Despite her right move to calm the controversy, it is somewhat worrisome that she appears to have recently backpedaled on her campaign pledge to close the country’s deep divides along ideological, generational and regional lines by forming a special presidential commission on national unity.

Two former pro-democracy activists, who were expected to play a key role in promoting social integration, reportedly refused to join the commission set to be launched late this month. They have not given explicit reasons, but speculation has arisen they may have become estranged with the president over what they believed to be an undue appreciation of their efforts to help with her election campaign last year.

The number of commission members has also been halved from the originally planned 40 to 20, making some ruling party officials worried that criticism or skepticism will be mounting that her promise to build “a 100 percent Korea” was nothing but an election slogan.

It might be too simple to say that the size of the commission holds the key to achieving its goal. But Park and her aides need to pay more heed to the argument that the commission should be guaranteed an effective role in resolving conflicts that have come to the surface since the inauguration of the new administration in February. The commission should not just be a repeat of the social integration panels set up by previous presidents, which had left little but a pile of recommendations that people can barely remember.