Pres. frontrunner`s comments at a panel discussion

Ruling Saenuri Party Rep. Park Geun-hye told a panel discussion of potential presidential candidates hosted by the Korea News Editors’ Association on Sunday, “If I`m selected by the people and take huge responsibilities, I can confidently say anything that uses my name will be lies in any case and you shouldn’t be deceived.” She mentioned the introduction of a law on a permanent independent counsel and a special inspector under the presidential office, as well as a limit on the abuse of the president’s prerogative power to pardon to prevent corruption involving the chief executive`s relatives and confidants. More important is the willingness of presidential candidates and the president. Most corruption begins with the presidential camp, as was the case with President Lee Myung-bak’s older brother and his confidants Choi See-joong and Park Young-joon. Therefore, Park Geun-hye needs to be strict about issues of her own and those of people close to her.

She drew the line when cited for her different response when the National Assembly voted against the arrest of ruling party Rep. Chung Doo-un, and when her brother was rumored to be related to the chairman of Samhwa Savings Bank. “Chung promised to the people to put down his privileges as a lawmaker when he was a head of the ruling party’s emergency committee. But prosecutors neither subpoenaed nor found suspicions over my brother. In addition, he clearly said he wasn`t involved in case, so it’s over,” she said. Park Geun-hye, however, should not stay complacent about her brother and his lawyer wife.

On the Jeongsoo Scholarship Foundation, which owns 30 percent of MBC and 100 percent of the Busan Daily, she said, “It`s already become a public foundation. What do you want me to do? Can I tell him to step down just because I know him?” Park Geun-hye chaired the foundation from 1995 to 2005 and her confidant Philip Choi, former ambassador to Libya, succeeded her. Though opposition parties and the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education apparently tried to find fault with her, Park seemed extremely egocentric and complacent. Unless she handles the foundation issue in a way acceptable to the people, she will come under attack again in the run-up to the December presidential election.

The panel discussion asked many sensitive questions to her, such as her intent to privatize the ruling Saenuri Party into her own party, lack of communication skills, her self-righteousness image, the 1960 military coup orchestrated by her father Park Chung-hee, and his attempt to stay in power by revising the Constitution. For her part, she did not avoid such questions and answered them with confidence. The Korean media and public will keep watching discussions of presidential candidates from both the ruling and opposition parties, including Tuesday`s forum hosted by the Kwanhun Club, a fraternity of senior Korean journalists, to feature presidential contender and Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Moon-soo.