hankyoreh

Ruling Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung at a press conference at Saenuri Party headquarters in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood

The Saenuri Party’s nomination massacre has finally led to the wholly unprecedented situation of a revolt led by none other than the head of the party.

On Mar. 24, Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung announced that the party’s supreme council would not be approving the decision of the party’s nomination management committee in regard to five election districts, including those of sitting lawmakers Yoo Seung-min and Lee Jae-oh.

If Kim refuses to approve the nomination of the so-called “true loyalists” to President Park Geun-hye, they won’t be able to run for office.

With Kim refusing to nominate Park’s close associates, we are witnessing a showdown between the president and the head of the ruling party.

The decisive factor in Kim‘s decision to launch a revolt appears to have been Rep. Yoo Seung-min’s announcement that he would be leaving the party and running as an independent. Yoo had been forced out of the party by a stunning sequence of dirty tricks, cowardly moves and chopped logic.

There were probably few who did not sympathize with what Yoo said when he announced his departure from the party. “This is not just. This is anachronistic political vengeance,” he said.

Despite this, no sooner had Yoo left the Saenuri Party than the pro-Park faction audaciously nominated Lee Jae-man, former mayor of the Dong District of Daegu and one of Park’s “true loyalists,” as the only party candidate for Yoo’s district.

In a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Lee Han-ku, chair of the party‘s nomination management committee, launched a venomous attack on Yoo, accusing him of “spitting on and slandering our party while departing to pursue his own political agenda.”

Voters have not responded positively to the Saenuri Party’s nomination drama. It would be hard for anyone in their right mind not to feel indignant about the party‘s mean-spirited and persistent attempts to snuff out the political career of a lawmaker who had once served as the party’s floor leader, and all for the simple reason that he had gotten on the boss‘s bad side.

There is a growing feeling among voters that they will have to cast judgment on the Saenuri Party’s arrogant and impudent nominations at the ballot box.

The fact that Kim Moo-sung is finally standing up to the bad behavior of the thugs in the pro-Park faction who have been running roughshod over him all this time is likely connected with this shift in public sentiment.

While Kim has begun to flex his authority by refusing to place his seal of approval on the list of “true loyalist” candidates, the outcome of this struggle for supremacy remains uncertain.

Kim’s long-standing habit of putting up a show of resistance whenever there is a conflict only to sneak off with his tail between his legs does not inspire confidence. Furthermore, the pro-Park clique has stopped at nothing to achieve its objectives, and it is not about to take this counterattack sitting down.

One of several possible scenarios is that the pro-Park members on the party’s supreme council could dissolve the council and set up a new emergency committee, which could then find some underhanded way to push through the nominations.

It will be worth watching what petty tricks and cunning stratagems the pro-Park faction conjures up to drag out this over-the-top soap opera.

Needless to say, the person who is ultimately responsible for reducing the Saenuri Party to this sorry state is President Park Geun-hye.

So here is a question for Park. How is it that, after making a shambles of the ruling party, she is still talking about saving the economy, improving the quality of life and national security?

Park made this bed, and now she has to lie on it. There is only person who can resolve the current crisis in the Saenuri Party, and her name is Park Geun-hye.

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