hankyoreh

Dec. 10. At the meeting Park made criticisms against the domestic opposition for denying the results of last year’s election

By Seong Han-yong, political correspondent

During past dictatorial regimes in South Korea, the only weapon at the disposal of the opposition political party was to protest that it was being oppressed. Whatever anyone did to cross the opposition party, they said they were being oppressed. Even when the prosecutors investigated a member of the opposition party on charges of corruption, the opposition complained that it was oppression. This narrative of oppression was effective for a long time.

Today, President Park Geun-hye is repressing the opposition party and the Korean people using the narrative of refusing to accept the results of last year’s presidential election. However Park may be attacked, she makes a fuss about people rejecting the results of the election. While the people attacking the president scramble to deny charges that they are rejecting the election, the criticism of Park fizzles out. The amazing thing is that there seems to be no end of this pattern where the ruling party makes a threat and the opposition party backs down.

Ever since April, when the prosecutors’ investigation of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) really began, the opposition party has called for a thorough excavation of the facts in the NIS online comment case. But the Blue House and the ruling party have continued to get in the way of the investigation using the narrative of rejecting the election results.

This kind of scuffle was also repeated during the parliamentary investigation of the NIS in August. Contributing to this vicious cycle was the incompetence of the opposition party leadership and the media landscape, which is decisively tilted in favor of the current administration.

The reaction that Park Geun-hye and the Saenuri Party (NFP) are making to the remarks by Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker Jang Ha-na and DP supreme council member Yang Seung-jo are also firmly planted in the same narrative of rejecting the election results.

Park’s close confidant Lee Jeong-hyun, Blue House public relations secretary, lost his temper and yelled at reporters, and ruling party lawmakers lifted placards at a protest in front of the National Assembly building - a bizarre sight that has not been seen before in South Korean politics. Nor was there any precedent for the party in power’s allegedly temporary interference with scheduled affairs in the National Assembly.

What is the reason for this overreaction by Lee and the Saenuri Party? People who are familiar with the inner workings of the Blue House and the ruling party offered the following explanations.

The first reason offered is Park Geun-hye’s self-righteousness. During the Cabinet meeting on Dec. 10, Park criticized the remarks of the opposition party lawmakers using such terms as “conflict between parties,” “divide in public opinion,” and “the state and the people.” This means that she immediately took an attack on herself to be a conflict between parties and a divide in public opinion. This is very similar to the attitude of past dictators. “L’etat, c’est moi” (I am the state) was the expression that Louis XIV of France used to express his absolute monarchy.

During a cabinet meeting in September - the day after having a three-party meeting with Saenuri Party leader Hwang Woo-yea and DP leader Kim Han-gil - Park said, “I’ve been the head of the opposition party and I’ve had to rebuild a party that was in trouble, but I’ve never sacrificed the Korean people for the party’s goals.” By this, she insinuated that the Democratic Party was sacrificing the Korean people to pursue its own goals. As Park sees it, she is right, and everyone else is wrong.

The bigger problem is that President Park’s attitude is not being challenged by her Blue House advisors or by the Saenuri Party. If anything, it appears to be getting worse. The reasonable lawmakers in the Saenuri Party all have their lips sealed.

A second factor is the attempt by the Blue House and the pro-Park hardliners in the Saenuri Party to gain an upper hand in the tussle between ruling and opposition parties over the special committee and the special prosecutor.

“There are moderates who want to gradually resolve these issues through negotiations and discussion with the opposition party,” said a source with the Saenuri Party on condition of anonymity. “However, the internal structure of the party allows the hardliner argument - that conflict must be maintained in order to win the municipal elections next year - to win out at the crucial junctures.”

A third possible analysis is that the public security establishment and the hawks among the conservatives are making a concerted effort to oppose reform of the NIS. On the Saenuri Party’s website, many people have written posts opposing NIS reform, some calling for the resignation of party leader Hwang Woo-yea, who agreed to establish a special committee to reform the NIS.

There are also a fair number of Saenuri Party lawmakers who are opposed to reforming the NIS. The Blue House and the Saenuri Party leadership are forced to take into account such tendencies.

The question is what will happen next. There is virtually no chance that we will see any changes in Park’s attitude, in the hardliners’ attempt to take control of the political climate, or in the interests of the public security establishment. Vehement conflict is expected in the National Assembly from now until the end of the year over important agenda items such as the budget bill for 2014 and the reform of the tax code.

If the conflict between ruling and opposition parties becomes acute, it is very likely that President Park and the Saenuri Party will keep pressuring the opposition party by threatening to shut down the special committee for reforming the NIS and to organize a provisional budget, all as an extension of their narrative of denying the election. The controversy about the remarks made by Jang Ha-na and Yang Seung-jo is just the beginning.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]