Park GH`s latest campaign pledges

The ruling Saenuri Party`s presidential candidate Park Geun-hye on Tuesday announced comprehensive and high-intensity pledges for the reform of political parties, the National Assembly and the government. Following a reform measure released Oct. 22, the main opposition Democratic United Party`s standard-bearer Moon Jae-in added new pledges for reforming parties the same day. Those proposed by independent runner Ahn Cheol-soo, who had said he was going for the nation`s highest office "to reform politics," appear weak compared to those proposed by Park and Moon.

The highlight of Park`s proposed reforms was a constitutional amendment. "After taking office, I will push for a constitutional amendment that will include allowing the president to serve two four-year terms and strengthening basic civic rights," she said. Politicians had steadily voiced the need for an amendment to disperse the concentration of power in the presidency and a four-year term to overcome the side effects of the existing five-year term.

Moon also agreed on the need for a four-year presidential term. A recent survey by Research and Research found that 56 percent of the public support a four-year term. But both he and Park are known to be hostile toward reducing the term of the next president so that the presidential and general elections can be promoted in the same cycle. A constitutional amendment should reflect not only the restructuring of the power concentration but also the basic rights of the people and the frame of national governance. Both the ruling and opposition parties must also adequately discuss it before implementation.

Reform of the candidate nomination system for public office and parliament is also of interest to the presidential candidates. Park wants candidates for parliament to be selected for the ruling and opposition parties through public participation. She also pledged to abolish the nomination of the heads of municipal and provincial governments by party leaders and secret nominations of proportional representation candidates. Moon pledged a transfer of parliamentary member nomination rights to municipal and provincial parties, abolition of party nominations by local council members, introduction of a proportional representative candidate system, and adjustment of the number of seats for local districts and proportional representatives. Because of a central party`s dominance over candidate nominations, lawmakers turn into "yes" people to parties and communication and compromise prove difficult among parties.

Park pledged to bill the person who creates the need for a by-election of lawmakers due to corruption for the by-election costs. She also wants a fine of more than 30 times the money and goods used as bribes for candidate nominations and an ensuing ban on perpetrators from rejoining public office for more than 20 years. These kinds of candidate nomination and election reforms will help domestic politics regain the people`s confidence.

Her pledges, however, excluded plans to eradicate pro-North Korea politics. Pro-North officials have posts in the National Assembly. Both the ruling and main opposition parties, however, have yet to expel Reps. Lee Seok-gi and Kim Jae-yeon, two pro-North sympathizers implicated in a candidate nomination scandal. Moon said, "I will make no political alliances with political forces who deny the national anthem." If Park wants to steer South Korea toward the right direction, she needs to devise plans to eradicate pro-North politics.