[Editorial] Cheong Wa Dae’s Response to the Impeachment Should Not Be Like This

In this section, we pointed out that the opposition party’s impeachment proposal against President Roh Moo-hyun would not be always positive, considering the entire nation. We worried about the governmental vacuum and disorder from the impeachment, even leaving behind the legal judgment of whether the opposition party’s claim that the President violated election law could motion the impeachment. Therefore, we asked the President to apologize and the opposition party to withdraw their motion.

However, Cheong Wa Dae stepped forward, declaring full-frontal confrontation; it could not yield to the impeachment proposal since it was the opposition party’s general election strategy which took the constitutional order hostage. Moreover, the administration asserted that it started to examine the presidential rights in case the impeachment motion would be passed.

I believe that Cheong Wa Dae is exaggerating or distorting the true nature of the issue. The impeachment by the opposition party is conditional; it is asking the President to promise not to violate the election law again now that his ambition for a landslide went too far, and was even judged unconstitutional by the National Election Commission (NEC). Then, the President should accept the demands of the opposition party. If he decided to abide by the decision of the NEC, a constitutional body, he should take the right path of apologizing and promising citizens never to repeat it. The majority of the public opinion hopes that the President will end the impeachment disputes with his apology.

In spite of this fact, Cheong Wa Dae is currently interpreting the impeachment proposal as a way “not to comply with the result of the presidential election and to ignore the Roh administration” and declaring defiance. The Open Uri Party even motioned to dissolve the National Assembly, and Nosamo, an acronym for those who love Roh Moo-hyun, is protesting against the impeachment launch in front of the National Assembly building.

It should not be like this. Are they planning to work on the general election with a divided nation of pro- and anti-impeachment sections after dividing the citizens into progressive and anti-progressive groups before? If not, we should end the dispute right here. We should not forget the fact that the President himself takes full responsibility for every disorder coming from the impeachment proceedings in the end.