hankyoreh

Leaders of the three main opposition parties (from left to right) People’s Party emergency committee chair Park Jie-won

The people’s wishes went ignored by their representatives. No motion for the impeachment and prosecution of President Park Geun-hye was reported as an item at the Dec. 1 regular session of the National Assembly. The omission automatically means a possible vote on Dec. 2 is now out of the question.

The crucial factor this time was a turnaround from members of the Saenuri Party’s non-Park wing who had previously gone along with the impeachment plan. After working until as recently as the day before to fine-tune a motion with the opposition, the wing ended up bowing to a pro-Park faction plan for the President’s resignation in late April and an early presidential election in June. It had been two days since Park gave her third address to the public, in which she said she would “leave the issue of whether to remain or resign to the National Assembly.” The non-Park wing’s decision to break ranks led to opposition infighting, which the leaders of the Minjoo Party and People’s Party exchanging harsh words and blame in a meeting just before the Dec. 1 regular session.

At a general lawmakers’ meeting that morning, the Saenuri Party adopted a plan for Park’s resignation in late April and an early presidential election in June (moved up from its original date in December). Members of the non-Park faction, which had previously declared their commitment to an impeachment, raised little to no objections to the plan. Their reasoning was that “fixing the current government chaos needs to come first.” The result was to turn back the political clock to the earliest stages of the ongoing candlelight demonstrations for Park’s resignation - in defiance of the popular will expressed for more than a month now.

“We determined this was a rational schedule for a stable transfer of power and to ensure minimal preparations for a presidential election,” explained Saenuri Party floor leader Chung Jin-suk.

The Saenuri Party now plans to hold discussions with the opposition on forming a neutral Cabinet under the leadership of a Prime Minister nominated by the National Assembly. All of the ideas were raised as potential solutions during the early candlelight demonstrations.

“What it means is that [Park] will be holding on to the presidency for the next five months. The discussions have gone back completely to the drawing board,” said Yong In University professor Choi Chang-ryul. Even after Park was found by investigating prosecutors to have been the central figure in the Choi Sun-sil’s government interference scandal - and her first and second addresses to the public to have been lies - the mere promise of “orderliness” was enough for the Saenuri Party to override the truth.

As the main opposition party, the Minjoo Party would have been expected to lead the way in coordinating for an impeachment. Instead, it proved similarly incompetent: its leadership clashing, its lawmakers flailing. Back when the floor leadership was going all out to persuade the Saenuri Party’s non-Park wing on Nov. 23, leader Choo Mi-ae poured cold water on the cooperation by saying her party would “not beg for impeachment votes.” On the morning of Dec. 1, she had a one-on-one meeting with former Saenuri leader and senior non-Park faction member Kim Moo-sung, breaking an agreement with the other two opposition party leaders the day before not to negotiate for shortening of Park’s term. Choo claimed she had “gone to talk [Kim] into participating in an impeachment” - but said after the meeting that Park’s resignation “should come by the end of the January at the latest,” leading some to suspect the two had in fact negotiated for a shorter term. While Choo belatedly tried to put out the fire by saying the late January date “was a reference to when the Constitutional Court’s impeachment adjudication would be completed,” her words still resonated as off-message. The party leadership hurried to hold a general lawmaker’s meeting, where a motion for a Dec. 2 impeachment vote was decided as a platform. The problem was that the non-Park faction had already made it official it would not be cooperating with the motion, while the People’s Party was balking at the idea of a Dec. 2 vote. While the possibility of a Dec. 2 impeachment vote had been ruled out because of the difficulties of ensuring the necessary votes from a majority of lawmakers, it was difficult to shake the sense the party was attempting to furnish an alibi for the candle-bearing public.

After being quick to adopt a platform of pushing for resignation and impeachment, the People’s Party has proved malleable since the discussions actually got off the ground. Time and again, it has hesitated to weigh the potential political gains and losses. The signs were evident from the point it began stubbornly insisting the National Assembly needed to elect a new Prime Minister before proceeding with an impeachment. The Prime Minister election recommendation was abandoned after the Blue House withdrew its plans to propose recommendation and the opposition settled on an impeachment push, but the party was left reeling again after Park’s third address to the public. It began when Kim Dong-chul, a prominent Honam-area (the southwest, a liberal stronghold) lawmaker and the party’s next emergency committee chairperson, said the President’s proposal “needs to be considered seriously.” Current emergency committee chair Park Jie-won also left room for an about-face, arguing that “while a voluntary resignation [by Park] would be the best thing, the President is almost certain to refuse, which means an impeachment is inevitable.” After the regular session on Dec. 1, the People’s Party presented lawmaker Chung Dong-young’s compromise plan to have an impeachment vote on Dec. 5. There, it was also tough to shake the impression the non-Park wing’s refusal to play along was being used as an excuse to jettison the impeachment approach.

What got politicians on board the impeachment train in the first place after their initial hesitation was the power of the candles and the popular will they represent. When the President declared a conditional surrender in the form of a shortened term, that progress too was attributable to the candlelight demonstrations. Now politicians find themselves quaking helplessly at a single word from Park. The last chance to pass an impeachment motion comes on Dec. 9, the last scheduled regular session date for the National Assembly this year. The only thing the public can trust in now is the candles that will blaze once again this weekend. As those flames fill the squares, they may now start advancing on the National Assembly.

By Lee Se-young and Lee Kyung-mi, staff reporters

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