Every weekday morning, executive members of the Grand National Party gather at the party headquarters in Yeouido near the National Assembly to start their daily meeting along with the heads of departments. Party chairman Hong Joon-pyo sits at the center, flanked by floor leader Hwang Woo-yea and the other executive members, Yoo Seung-min, Na Kyung-won, Won Hee-ryong and Nam Kyung-pil. Korea’s most unproductive “partisan politics” starts here.
For years and decades, party executives have behaved as if they were commanders in a war room. Every day, parties exchanged salvos through official statements, National Assembly speeches and radio and TV talk shows while they yield no policy measures to curb price rises, increase youth employment or reduce education costs. In the legislature, party loyalists have often engaged in barbaric altercations and numerous lawmakers have come under investigations of bribery, sexual harassment and lobbying scandals.
Defeat in the Oct. 26 mayoral by-election in Seoul prompted the GNP to look for a way out of what its leaders diagnosed as an extended period of lethargy and complacency that accrued a huge amount of public disgust. Last week, GNP chair Hong surprised party colleagues with dramatic reform ideas to put an end to the time-honored approach to day-to-day party operations.
First, he suggested that the party headquarters be moved to the National Assembly. Neither the party office building nor party secretariat is necessary, Hong said, they are just the targets of the people’s grievances and not a source of hope for tem. He must have realized how frustrating the daily war of words with the rival party was and how ugly it looked especially when internal feuds were exposed via the media.
Hong’s proposals went further. He suggested a top policy-making body with half of the seats given to non-members. Half of the proportional representation candidates should be nominated through a “citizens’ primary” combining the results of a vote and public opinion polls. Party cadres shall be recruited through open “auditions” similar to TV talent contests.
The chairman’s party proposal, however, was instantly rejected by other party executives. Rep. Yoo Seung-min, a top aide to Park Geun-hye, said Hong’s ideas did not deal with the core problems of the party, which concern the “mindset, posture and way of thinking” of its members. Hong postponed presenting a formal reform plan.
Won Hee-ryong demanded that the party chair and other top executives relinquish all their privileges. Nam Kyung-pil asked the “party leadership,” including President Lee Myung-bak to openly admit to their mistakes. Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Moon-soo determined the GNP as an “old, ragged party made up of rich people who do not know patriotism, devotion or self-sacrifice but are only looking for personal interests.”
Won and Nam were among the 25 “reformist” lawmakers who sent a letter to the Blue House asking the president to apologize to the nation for his recent administrative failures ― especially for neglecting the poor and benefitting the rich and large businesses ― and give up his growth-oriented policy framework. Their demand for a presidential apology was the culmination of the current blame game in the ruling party.
Everybody is pointing fingers at each other. They are gripped by a sense of defeatism and haunted by the ghost of the Ahn Cheol-soo phenomenon, which has yet to become a political force. The present noise at the GNP shows that it is now following the footsteps of former ruling parties that, in the final stages of the administrative term, invariably tried their utmost to dissociate themselves from the still incumbent president in order to escape from responsibilities for failed policies.
Most outside observers wonder why they are hearing so little about the number one cause of the GNP’s loss of public trust ― the leadership split between President Lee and Park Geun-hye. A rebirth of the party will be possible only if the two reach true reconciliation, hopefully before the nominations for the April general election. If not, many fear that there will no longer be a single ruling party.
