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[Editorial] Ruling Party May Perish in Humiliation

Posted July. 26, 2004 21:57,   

한국어

Uri Party leader Shin Gi-nam’s resort to extreme language such as “perish in humiliation” has left us to reconsider the level of decency of this country’s politics--and this country itself. Shin said, “There are many politicians and political forces which perished in humiliation after their attempts at a total war with my president and my party.” This remark targeted Park Geun-hye, the Grand National Party leader, who has recently taken issue with the identity of the Roh Moo-hyun regime. The issue of right or wrong aside, it was shallow.

A political leader’s remarks should carry dignity and weight. It is a given for him or her to respond to criticism with common sense and logic. The “perish in humiliation” remarks are imbued with a self-righteousness and arrogance, which not only flout such a principle, but also ignore others. When the ruling party’s chair has twisted narrow-minded consciousness in such a fashion, mutually enlivening politics will be just lip service.

The same is true of the ruling party’s pressure on GNP Chairwoman Park to make a public apology for the past wrongs of former President Park Chung-hee, her late father. It is the issue Park will decide on based on her political reasoning, not the one that should be attacked or determined as “guilty by family ties.” Isn’t she the first party to the issues related to her father?

Discounting criticisms of the regime is something an opposition leader takes for granted, as red-baiting also amounts to the shuttering of a logical debate structure. “Red baiting” or “red-baiting in reverse” are all relics of the past. The ruling party should come clean of its political identity, instead of attacking the opposition party.

Uri Party floor leader Chun Jung-bae said, “It is time for the ruling and opposition parties to come together in order to turn around the public livelihood and the economy.” On the other hand, its chair warned of “perishing in humiliation” [to the opposition party.] This kind of duality will buy the Uri Party trust from neither the opposition party nor the public. The reason why the ruling party’s approval rating is continuously falling is that it is increasingly less trustworthy. Probably, it is the Uri Party that may perish in humiliation.