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Politicians should discuss shortening Park’s term while proceeding with impeachment

Politicians should discuss shortening Park’s term while proceeding with impeachment

Posted December. 01, 2016 07:11,   

Updated December. 01, 2016 07:21

한국어

Leaders of the three opposition parties on Wednesday rejected President Park Geun-hye’s proposal that the National Assembly determine a timetable and procedures for reducing her term in office, making it clear that there will be no negotiations with the ruling Saenuri Party. At a meeting arranged by National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, the floor leaders of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and the People’s Party flatly rejected Saenuri floor leader Chung Jin-suk’s call for negotiations over President Park’s resignation, vowing to focus on impeaching the president. Even though the opposition parties have the upper hand under the current political situation, it would be equivalent to giving up politics for them to refuse to hold negotiations over the president’s exit at a time of national crisis.

It is true that most people do not sympathize with President Park’s self-defensive argument of her failure to control people close to her and passing the buck of determining her political fate to the National Assembly. The opposition parties have a point in their argument that starting negotiations for the procedure of a presidential departure ahead of parliamentary voting on her impeachment would reduce the driving force behind the impeachment motion. However, opposition parties alone cannot pass an impeachment motion without support from the non-Park faction of the ruling party, whether the voting takes place on Dec. 2 or Dec. 9. Then, the opposition parties should not adamantly reject negotiating with the ruling party and the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae even if they set the Dec. 9 voting as the target.

If the National Assembly passes an impeachment motion on Dec. 9, President Park will be suspended from office, with Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn taking charge as acting president. It would be in the interest of the opposition parties if an opposition-recommended prime minister was in charge until a new presidential election took place after the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment. It would also be necessary for political parties to have some time to discuss naming a new prime minister. In that sense, the opposition parties made a mistake when they missed the opportunity to recommend a prime minister in response to President Park’s request.

The opposition parties first mentioned “orderly resignation” by the president, but they did not even consider impeachment, which was a constitutional order. Now, they made an about-face in favor of impeachment and rejected a proposal to determine the timetable for Park’s early departure from office. Such flip-flops by the opposition parties would cost them public trust. What would they do if the impeachment fails to pass the National Assembly or the Constitutional Court? It would be a good choice to proceed with impeachment slowly while making a predictable arrangement for Park’s early departure.

The ruling Saenuri Party should not even think about linking the negotiations for presidential resignation to withdrawal of an impeachment motion. Any such attempt would make the president’s proposal a plot to avoid impeachment. Saenuri’s pro-Park faction, which opposes Park’s impeachment, does not have a seat in the negotiations. Now that the impeachment clock has started ticking and that President Park expressed her willingness to step down, all that the Park loyalists can do is to leave room for the surgery of the Saenuri Party and the bipartisan negotiations for Park’s exit.



jinnyong@donga.com