[Editorial] Election Terrorism

Something unimaginable happened in the middle of a campaign for the upcoming local elections. Chairwoman Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party (GNP), who was participating in an on-the-street campaign rally at Shinchon, Seoul two days ago, was attacked by a suspicious man and had to undergo the major surgery of receiving 60 stitches around her neck. The wound is reportedly so serious that the medical staff was worried about a possible injury to her facial nerves. This kind of “election terrorism” is an outrageous act threatening democracy; what makes it more shocking is that the target was the leader of the largest opposition party.

The police, for the moment, announced the suspect, who has eight prior criminal convictions and has spent 14 years in prison, committed the crime out of social dissatisfaction, but there are too many suspicious things for the incident to be considered a chance occurrence. Viewing the case as a display of social dissatisfaction does not explain why the chairwoman of the major opposition had to be targeted. Furthermore, another person also shook his fist at her, following the crime of stabbing her with a knife. The second suspect has reportedly sponsored the ruling Uri Party as its member. There are even some witnesses who say that three to four people rushed at her at the same time.

Once the prosecution and the police formed a joint investigation headquarters, they should thoroughly verify why they committed such a crime and who was behind it. Other things that should also be verified: The commissioner-general said that it was the accidental crime of a drunk and later took it back, and there are reports that the police only went into action as late as 30 minutes after the report.

A hasty conclusion, of course, is something that should be avoided. Political exploitation of the case should also be refrained from. The investigation should be conducted in a prompt and thorough way to prevent these things from happening. Above all, the truth about the case should be disclosed before the election so that wrong judgments will not affect the election.

The incident also showed problems with escorting key figures. The police’s escort rules stipulate that the president, the prime minister, the National Assembly chairman and the chief justice are subject to escort protection, but not chairs of political parties. Chairs of opposition parties do not prefer police escorts as they are worried that all their movements might be watched. Given the frequency of public appearances and political influence as strong as those currently subject to the police escort, the chair of the largest opposition party needs to be included on the list of people subject to the police escort.

We have a political history of losing a considerable number of leaders from terrorist attacks. Threatening the life of a political leader for having a different stance is turning the nation back to a dark past. The Roh Moo-hyun administration should revisit whether their politics of encouraging division and hatred helped bring about this terrorist act.