Why did pro-Park faction veto the appointment of think tank head?

The Yeouido Institute, the ruling Saenuri Party’s think tank, researches policies during peacetime but plays a role in the party’s nomination of candidates during wartime – as general elections approach. The think tank is in charge of opinion polls by constituency, which is one of the key criteria in the nomination of candidates. In the run-up to the 2008 general elections, which were said to be the “massacre of pro-Park Geun-hye faction,” the party’s then Secretary-General Lee Bang-ho used the results of the institute`s opinion polls for incumbent lawmakers who protested for not being nominated.

The plan of Rep. Kim Moo-sung, the ruling party’s leader, to appoint Park Se-il, an honorary chairman of the board of the Hansun Foundation was blocked by the party’s supreme council. It is because Rep. Seo Cheong-won, a member of the council and the most senior member of the pro-Park faction, opposed him by saying, “Lawmakers are calling me because of a lot of concerns.” Seo also expressed dissatisfaction over the nomination of the members of the pro-Lee Myung-bak faction who are close to Kim, such as former lawmaker Kwon Oh-eul for the chairman of the party’s human resource recruitment committee, and former lawmaker Ahn Gyeong-ryul for the deputy chairman of the party’s national policy advisory committee.

Back in March 2005, Park Se-il gave up his seat in the parliament and his position as the chairman of the policy committee, as the original bill on the multifunctional administrative city, which was backed by then party leader Park, passed the National Assembly. He believed that splitting the capital would downgrade the country. In the 2012 general elections, he created the Korea Vision Party to compete against the Saenuri Party for conservative innovation. He declared that he sponsors President Park in the last presidential election, but many of the pro-Park faction do not like him for having harmed the party and had less loyalty.

The pro-Park faction’s veto against Park must be related to the concern that he could repeat the “massacre of the pro-Park faction” in the nomination of candidates for the 2016 general elections at a time when the party is dominated by non-pro-Park faction. However, if the party does not appoint him as the head of the party’s think tank just because he had a different view from President Park in the past, it could be criticized for the party’s narrow-mindedness. If the Saenuri Party wants to make a think tank with a long tradition and power like the Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institute in the U.S., it should nominate a person for the Yeouido Institute regardless of one’s faction in the party.