Opposition alliance in jeopardy
By Chung Hee-hyung
Rep. Park Ji-won, the floor leader of the opposition Democratic United Party (DUP), said Thursday that he was “highly skeptical” as to whether the DUP should stick to its alliance with the minority Unified Progressive Party (UPP).
Park said during a local radio interview that the prospect of the two parties’ alliance was “gloomy” in view of the ongoing situation. Park’s remark was taken to indicate that the party was seriously contemplating parting ways with its minority partner entirely.
Even though the UPP has been mired in a vote-rigging crisis for more than a month that saw its approval rate plummeting, as late as May 13 Park had only expressed his “strong concern” over the turmoil surrounding it.
The turmoil culminated in last Sunday’s Central Steering Committee meeting during which participants got into a violent melee, resulting in the party’s co-chair Cho Joon-ho receiving a neck injury.
The left-leaning party’s crisis led some quarters within the DUP to urge that it should break the increasingly unhelpful alliance. They fear it could even cost the party in the upcoming presidential election. Recent polls support their apprehension; the latest JongAng Ilbo survey of May 17 saw the ruling Saenuri Party’s Park Guen-hye taking more than half of voters. Director of Gallop Korea Huh Jin-jae said that voters, disgusted at the UPP voting scandal, were gathering to support Park.
“Independent voters could move to support of Park should the current voting scandal continue,” he said.
Besides general voters, even the UPP’s strongest supporter declared that it would withdraw its backing. “We will discuss whether we should abandon the UPP altogether or actively engage in the party’s affairs and take a prominent role,” stated Kim Young-hoon, head of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), Tuesday.
The KCTU was discussing whether it should completely part with UPP or simply withdraw its support and participate in reforming the party instead. The trade union is expected to reach a decision late Thursday.
Members of the UPP seem either unable or unwilling to heed to the alarm signals coming from its partner, general voters and even its largest support platform, because the crisis engulfing it shows no signs of abating. Kang Ki-kab, head of its emergency committee, strongly criticized the mainstream faction’s decision Thursday to set up its own emergency council.
“The mainstream’s behavior could split the party in two, and outsiders would see it as an outright opposition to the central steering committee’s resolution,” said Kang at a press conference on May 17. The committee passed a resolution online three days ago which called for all six proportional representatives to resign, alleging they were selected last April through voting fraud.
“I will personally meet with Lee Suk-ki and Kim Jae-yeon and persuade them to resign,” continued Kang, referring to two heavyweights and lawmakers-elect who won proportional representative seats.
The two declined Kang’s offer to meet them. “Resigning from the seat would have no effect except worsening the situation,” Lee said in a radio interview shortly after Kang’s press conference. Kim was similarly adamant in her refusal to resign. “I will not follow the non-mainstreams’ false political logic which completely lacks truth and principle,” wrote Kim last week in a letter addressed to UPP co-chair Rhyu Si-min.
The writer is a Korea Times intern.