ed Who's blaming whom?

Officials must watch their words in times of national tragedies

Critics of the government are stepping up their accusations against President Park Geun-hye and her administration for their belated and ineffective response to the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry. Equally intensifying are the efforts of Park’s aides and cronies to defend the president from what they see as "impure political instigations.”

Any accident of national ramifications is bound to result in political debates in the course of finding out their causes and apportioning blame. In the ongoing case, however, some officials are showing the audacity to categorize even justifiable protesters as political attackers.

Few could be more egregious than Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Park Seung-choon in this regard. "When 9/11 happened in America, the approval rating (of the then President George W. Bush) rocketed up to 90 percent,” Park told a workshop recently. "In Korea, however, it is customary for people to attack the president and government whenever some problems arise.”

Park thus criticized Koreans’ national character as divisive rather than uniting, like Americans, in times of crisis. One can’t help but wonder how such an ignorant and insensible person holds a Cabinet post.

It was apparent that in his eagerness to "save” his boss, Park failed to discern 9/11, an external attack by terrorists, from 4/16, an internal disaster caused by human greed and "governmental” blunders. This is not the first time Park has come to the rescue of his appointer. In the run-up to the 2012 president elections, the official caused a controversy by forcing his ministry officials to receive spiritual education on "national security.” This public servant has always put the president ahead of the people.

So it seems with Rep. Nam Kyung-pil, who became the ruling Saenuri Party’s candidate for Gyeonggi Province governor in the June local elections. Nam also said, "I will win the election by all means and defend the president.” One feels tempted to ask: from what or whom is the would-be mayor to defend the chief executive? Why should the governing camp regard all critics of President Park as enemies?

Or, as an old saying goes, is this just a case of a guilty conscience needs no accuser?

Few showed the governing party’s undue self-defensiveness better than its new floor leader, Rep. Lee Wan-goo. Commenting on some Korean-Americans’ moves to run an ad criticizing the Park administration’s tardy and bumbling response to the ongoing tragedy in the New York Times, Lee said, "There are political instigators even outside of the country.”

For what should the ethnic Koreans with U.S. citizenship be instigating, however? What political and economic gains will there be for them even if they "could” change political power across the Pacific?

One can doubt the effects of such ads from a practical viewpoint, as ordinary Americans care little about other countries’ domestic politics. But the ruling camp should try to understand what has moved these Korean-Americans: shock, regret and anger, like their compatriots back home and their wish to make public what’s happening in Korea more precisely.

At least one thing is certain: the guards’ efforts to defend their boss will only backfire, as they are based on wrong judgments, selfish intentions and ``impure” political calculations.