Non-Park Geun-hye faction should found new conservative party

Non-Park Geun-hye faction should found new conservative party. December. 14, 2016 07:14. phark@donga.com.

Former Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung told reporters on Tuesday, “It is imperative to establish a new conservative party that majority of people, who are concerned about the country’s economic and national security crisis, can trust and depend on,” adding, “I am agonizing over the idea that I must bolt from the Saenuri Party and create a new party.” Labeling the pro-Park Geun-hye faction "fake conservatives," Kim said, “A new conservative group and the centralist group should join forces and start concerted effort to restore the country.”

Many of the non-Park faction lawmakers haven't agreed to the idea of founding a new party, which has been proposed by Kim, who is the de facto leader of the non-Park faction. “While struggling to achieve reform within the party, I thought defecting the party is always the last resort and I have no plan to bolt the party,” said Ryu Seung-min, another leader in the non-Park faction. However, the ruling Saenuri Party is scheduled to hold a string of key political events including competitive election on Friday of its floor leader, who will succeed Chung Jin-seok who offered to resign, and election of the chair of the party’s emergency committee on Dec. 19-20. There is little chance for the non-Park faction to win in the competitive elections in the Saenuri Party, in which the pro-Park faction takes up majority. The non-Park faction should not be hesitant to make a bold decision to defect the party if it wants to avoid criticism that the faction is bolting Saenuri because it failed in competitive elections in the pro-Park faction-controlled party.”

As Kim Moo-sung claimed, the pro-Park faction was "political slaves" of President Park Geun-hye. The hegemony of the pro-Park faction, wrought by this sense of slavery, resulted in the party’s humiliating defeat in the April 13 general elections. Kim’s argument “The sense of slavery that taboos a single word of sound criticism against President Park by labeling it betrayal effectively ended up causing the demise of both President Park and the Saenuri Party” is persuasive and logical. Even if the non-Park faction seizes control of the party, the party stands no chance to win the presidential election next year, if it uses the name of the effectively deceased Saenuri Party.

The non-Park faction failed to block anachronistic abusing of authority by President Park and the pro-Park faction by risking their fate, and the force that stopped the non-Park faction from ‘returning’ to anti-impeachment was none other than public sentiment revealed in candlelight vigils in the impeachment process. The non-Park faction is reluctant to bolt the party due to ‘instinct of wellbeing’ stemming from the concern that they could be frozen to death if they choose to defect. If the non-Park faction is to take responsibility for failing conservative politics, it should have the commitment to bite the bullet and sleep outdoors homelessly. If the non-party faction forms a new parliamentary negotiating block, and teams up with party members who defected the party including Gyeonggi Governor Nam Kyung-pil former lawmaker Lee Jae-oh, it will also be able to absorb lawmakers who supported Park’s impeachment in the pro-Park faction as well. After all, a conservative pro-Park party that seeks to keep the status quo is doomed to wither down and disappear.

Whichever decision the Constitutional Court will make regarding Park’s impeachment, early presidential election around May to June next year will most likely be inevitable. There is need for a political party that conveys minds of conservative voters in the early presidential election, but a situation wherein Saenuri will become such a party is hardly logical and justifiable. A new conservative party should pursue a "warm community" while valuing freedom, democracy and market economy, put national security as the ultimate priority, and strengthen alliances with allies. More than anything else, the party should trumpet and advocate for restoration of rule of law and politics of accountability that has been compromised by the Park administration. If the non-Park faction hesitates to become a catalyst for the emergence of such a new conservative party, it effectively constitutes a crime against Korea’s history.