Park’s speech riles opposition

President Park Geun-hye on Monday urged the rival parties to reconcile in her first speech at the National Assembly, putting the ball back in the court of the opposition, which immediately responded by stepping up its protest.

“If the rival parties at the National Assembly seek out an agreement on many issues raised by the opposition, as well as on any other topic, I will respect and accept it,” Park said in her 28-minute-long speech urging parliamentary approval of the 2014 budget.

“The government cannot move based on any one-sided view of either the ruling or the opposition party, or based on a personal opinion. An agreement by the rival parties shall be accepted as the wishes of the people.”

Most of her speech was dedicated to detailing her key policy plans, including her vision for a creative economy that will lead to job creation, and her diplomatic efforts to establish a Eurasian rail link.

Members of the main opposition Democratic Party joined the others to stand up and clap as Park entered the Assembly hall, but remained mostly aloof and agitated throughout, while the ruling Saenuri Party members applauded 35 times during the speech.

The Unified Progressive Party lawmakers, currently staging a hunger strike to protest the injunction against it by the government, also sat through the session, their heads shaven from a previous protest, wearing masks that said “democracy,” and holding up posters calling for withdrawal of the government’s move to ban the party.

Unfazed by the visible tension, Park entered the hall smiling, nodding at her former colleagues, and delivered her speech, scanning the room and occasionally gesturing with her hands for emphasis.

This was Park’s third visit to the Assembly since her election. She had attended her inauguration ceremony in front of the Assembly hall, followed by three-way talks with the leaders of the two main parties on Sept. 16.

In her speech, Park reiterated her principle of refraining from political discussion by saying, “The center of politics is the Assembly and I believe there is no topic that cannot be discussed here. In a show of my respect to the Assembly, I will directly deliver the budget speech every year and seek your cooperation for the sake of creating a new political culture.”

She also repeated her initial position of awaiting the results of prosecutorial investigations into several contentious issues including the National Intelligence Service’s alleged interference in last year’s presidential election.

Park then pledged strict discipline amongst government agencies to prevent any allegations from arising of political interference in future elections including the local elections next year.

To the opposition’s demand for NIS reform, Park maintained that related measures should be prepared first by the agency to be discussed in the Assembly afterward.

Park spent most of her time encouraging support for her budget plans to begin her economic recovery and job employment measures. She also urged swift passage of pending bills on activating foreign and tourism investment, normalizing the housing market, and subsiding start-up businesses.

Park said she remained committed to her welfare expansion plans and that 5.2 trillion won had been set aside to introduce the basic pension system from next July.

Also mentioned were her intention to eradicate chronic corruption in the fields of nuclear power, defense, railway and cultural assets.

On foreign affairs, Park said, “I will exert all my efforts to establish the foundation for peace and unification and for North Korea to change into a responsible member of the international community within my term.”

Park stressed that her proposed Eurasia initiative to open the new “Silk Road Express” connecting from Busan to Europe through North Korea, Russia, China and Central Asia would be possible when Pyongyang steps toward dialogue and cooperation.

Park is the fourth president to have directly delivered the budget speech, but such speeches have never been received warmly by opposition parties.

The first was delivered by former President Roh Tae-woo in 1988, who was shunned by the opposition for being passive in pardoning prisoners of conscience. The speech by former President Roh Moo-hyun in 2003 was coldly received in the midst of corruption cases surrounding his associates, while former President Lee Myung-bak’s delivery in 2008 was condemned upon the U.S. beef import controversy.

By Lee Joo-hee
(jhl@heraldcorp.com)