Saenuri Party changing name due to Choi Soon-sil gate

Which political party does the public hate the most? It is a Factional Party. This is merely a joke but there is a real political party that is highly satirical of the pitiful reality of politics. Just ahead the 2014 elections for the Japanese House of Representatives, ‘the No Party to Vote For’ was a hot topic of conversation in Japan. In fact, the party earned 100,000 votes in the election in 2014, and 640,000 votes in the election for the House of Councilors in 2016. Controversy flared up because not a few voters reportedly voted for the party since they did not know that it was the name of a real political party, but it reflects the practice of people’s abhorrence of politics.

　

People inherit not only the body, hair and skin but also their names from their parents. Names are not created for, but bestowed to, the children. For this reason, a person who changes his or her name rather than continuously using the original given name is special. The court responsible for the trial of Choi Soon-sil decided to officially call her Choi Seo-won, the new name she had changed to, from Monday. Many of the people who change their names do so in order to overcome their given fate if we consider the renaming positively, or to hide their bad image from the past if we see it negatively. For the same reason, the ruling Saenuri Party decided to change its name to the Jayu Hanguk (Free Korea) Party.

It was none other than President Park Geun-hye that changed the Grand National Party to Saenuri after the October 26 re-elections and by-elections in 2011. The change of the Saenuri Party to the Free Korea Party reveals the party’s determination to separate itself from President Park, who is on impeachment trial. The name of the conservative party has changed whenever its effective leader changed from the Democratic Justice Party under then President Roh Tae-woo after Korea’s democratization in 1987, the Democratic Liberal Party under President Kim Young-sam, the New Korea Party led by Lee Hoi-chang, the Grand National Party under President Lee Myung-bak, and the Saenuri Party under President Park. It might have been better it was called the Roh Tae-woo Party, the Kim Young-sam Party, the Lee Hoi-chang Party, the Lee Myung-bak Party, and the Park Geun-hye Party instead.

The Conservative Party and the Labor Party of the U.K. and the Republic Party and the Democratic Party of the U.S. have used the same names for over 100 years. As the Saenuri Party has been renamed, the Justice Party, which is less than five years old, has now become the party with the oldest name. The Minjoo Party is about three years old, the People’s Party is about one year old, and the Barun Party is about 15 days old. How many of these names will survive five years from now? Nearly 70 years has passed since the first General Assembly under the Korean Constitution but party politics has yet to properly take its root in this country.