[Editorial] What Roh Must Do At Today’s Press Conference

The press conference of President Roh which is scheduled to be held today will become a turning point of the impeachment ambience surrounding the political world. In accordance with his attitude, the political situation can either be driven into catastrophe or alleviated.

President Roh should apologize to the citizens before everything else because the primary responsibility of this situation can be attributed to the president himself. The president, who has to abide by the constitution, raised a complaint against the judgment of National Election Commission, providing the origins of this situation. If the president apologized in a humble way, the situation would not have proceeded to this level of seriousness.

As the survey shows, the absolute majority of the whole population requires the apology of the president. Whether it is right or wrong, the representatives of every sector of society and non-governmental organizations are urging the president to solve the problem. His assertion, “I can’t because it is the opposition parties’ political tactic,” does not have any reasoning power. The president has to lay out his policy based on his consideration for citizens. It is hard to understand why he refuses to give an apology when most of the citizens want one. Even his close associate, Jung Dong-young, the head of Open Uri Party, the ruling party, has remarked that he would propose the president offer an apology.

Because of Roh’s indifferent and stubborn attitude, the congressmen of the Open Uri Party are trying to prevent a vote on the impeachment bill, which was legally submitted, by using physical interruptions such as lying down at the entrance of the assembly hall. Under his obstinate attitude, Moon Sung-kuen, the head of people’s participation movement headquarters of the Open Uri Party violated the trespassing prohibition rule of congress to encourage the congressmen of Uri Party who staged a demonstration against the impeachment bill. Only in this ambience could Kim Byung-jun, the head of the government renovation and decentralization commission, who is virtually a governmental official, set forth the supportive remarks of the Open Uri Party, even in Japan.

President Roh should understand that public opinion can turn its face away from him if he continues his stubbornness. People will be disappointed with the obstinacy and narrow mind of the president regardless of whether the impeachment bill is right or wrong. A president who does not have any courage or self-restriction cannot attract any expectations from the public.