hankyoreh

By Kim Jong-cheol, senior staff reporter
Park Geun-hye’s recent statement that people with “suspect national views” should not be National Assembly members is expected to cause controversy in the upcoming presidential election.
Observers are raising basic questions about just what the leading presidential contender meant by “national views” and whether it is appropriate for such views to decide eligibility for a representative body like the National Assembly.
Speaking on June 1 in reference to questions over whether United Progressive Party (UPP) proportional representation lawmakers Lee Seok-ki and Kim Jae-yun should be allowed to keep their seats, Park said, “The National Assembly is a place that handles national security. I do not think that people like that, people whose basic national views are suspect and who make the public nervous, should be National Assembly members.”
Park also responded affirmatively when asked by reporters whether she thought Lee and Kim should be expelled from the National Assembly if they do not resign.
Park’s remarks suggest she is trying to play up her identity as a conservative candidate at a time when the UPP is drawing heavy flak over allegations of allegiance to Pyongyang. Emphasizing her conservatism would put her in the advantageous position of being able to attack the Democratic United Party (DUP) - which has allied itself with the progressives - on ideological grounds. Park hinted at this at the time of her statement, saying, “The DUP also bears a heavy responsibility for this situation.”
“It certainly is true that a lot of people have been unhappy with the approach to the issue of the UPP’s identity,” said Kookmin University professor Mok Jin-hyu. “Park Geun-hye seems to have decided that it wouldn‘t be good for her to say nothing about it.”
Park’s remarks may prove to be a double-edged sword, since they could ignite a major controversy during the election race. While polls over the past few years have consistently had Park leading by a wide margin as a presidential contender, many still have doubts about her electability. This stems largely from questions about whether the values she stands for really reflect the 2012 zeitgeist, as well as fears that she might prove as authoritarian and one-sided in her leadership as her father, Park Chung-hee, whose dictatorial rule drove South Korea’s development in the ’60s and ‘70s. Her remarks, which seemed to suggest that National Assembly membership should be decided by so-called “national views,” stand a good chance of fanning those fears.
A political figure touched on the apprehensions, saying, “Park Geun-hye’s perception of ‘national views’ as a standard for judgment recalls the developmental dictatorship of the 1970s, when people were forced to recite the Charter of National Education.”
Some observers said Park‘s remarks recalled the 1979 expulsion of Kim Young-sam from the National Assembly. That incident, which took place while Park Chung-hee was in power, saw the then-opposition party chairman and future president evicted for his “anti-nationalist actions.”
A New Frontier Party lawmaker fretted that Park’s talk about national views may prompt some to ask how she felt about the 1961 coup that put her father in power.
“The remarks about ‘national views’ were not appropriately worded,” the lawmaker said.
In a June 3 commentary, DUP spokesman Park Yong-jin called on Park to “tell us exactly what in the world she was thinking when she said during the 2007 presidential primaries that the coup was a ‘revolution to rescue the nation.’”
A political science scholar who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “She does in some ways recall the past era. Even if the ‘national views’ remark wasn’t entirely wrong, it’s not desirable for her because it gives a sense of her limitations.”
Other academics and politicians said Park’s remarks were ill-suited to a democracy. Seoul National University professor Kang Won-taek said, “While I do think there are some problems with the way some UPP members see North Korea, that’s a matter of freedom of thought, and it‘s inappropriate to suggest their seats should be taken away over it.”
Kang stressed that the real issue with the UPP lawmakers should be the question of legality and fairness in their selection as proportional representatives.
“This is a choice for voters and the public to make through democratic debate, not a matter for forcibly evicting lawmakers from the National Assembly,” Kang said.
Current affairs critics Yu Chang-seon said it smacked of McCarthyism to suggest expelling Lee Seok-ki when his recent remarks and actions have had nothing to do with public security concerns.
Kyung Hee Cyber University professor Ahn Byung-jin expressed deep concern about the effects such an expulsion could have on the values of a democratic republic like South Korea.
“Certainly, they should go through expulsion procedures if there are signs of serious and substantive damage to the values of South Korea as a democratic republic as a result of UPP lawmakers entering the National Assembly,” Ahn said.
“But it is extremely dangerous to suggest not allowing them in and expelling them because their ‘national views are suspect.’”
A former National Assembly member said, “It’s not as though they went out and said, ‘Our allegiance is to North Korea, and we intend to act accordingly.’ It’s going overboard to talk about expelling them because of their views.”
　
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]