Opposition party invites outsider to lead committee

By Jun Ji-hye

Rep. Park Young-sun, interim leader of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), indicated Thursday that she will step down from the post, following bungled efforts to agree on a special bill relating to investigating the Sewol ferry disaster.

As chairwoman of the party’s emergency planning committee, she was set to lead the party until early next year when the NPAD is scheduled to hold a national convention at which a new leader is to be selected.

However, she told her fellow lawmakers Thursday that she intends to recruit an outsider to lead the committee.

“A figure from outside the party is necessary for the NPAD to contribute to the development of the nation’s democracy,” she was quoted as saying.

Her comments were construed as an intention to step down from the chairwomanship, while maintaining her post as floor leader.

A third-term lawmaker Sul Hoon supported this interpretation, saying, “It has been almost impossible for Park to hold two positions at the same time. Park should decide when and how to resolve this.”

Park has yet to clarify whether she will actually give up the chairwomanship of the committee or not.

Nonetheless, she has already asked Lee Sang-don, professor emeritus at Chung-Ang University and a former member of the ruling Saenuri Party’s emergency committee, to lead the committee, despite him not currently being a member of NPAD.

“I will elaborate on the request next time,” Lee told YTN, a local cable news channel.

Watchers say that the professor seems poised to accept the offer.

“Park is expected to focus more on her job as a floor leader,” said one official of the NPAD.

Park, who is also the party’s floor leader, assumed the chairwomanship of its emergency committee in early August replacing former co-chairmen Reps. Ahn Cheol-soo and Kim Han-gil, who resigned after they suffered a crushing defeat in the July 30 by-elections.

However, Park’s leadership was damaged following the failure to push through the special bill designed to establish a committee to investigate the direct and associated causes of the man-made Sewol disaster in April, due to objections from relatives of those who died.

She earlier formed a consensus with Rep. Lee Wan-koo, her ruling party counterpart, which was rejected by the families because they said the proposed committee would not have full investigative rights and the power to indict anyone suspected of having participated in actions that led to the sinking of the vessel.

The families said Park lied to them.

Since then, the proposed Sewol bill has remained at a standstill and the National Assembly is deadlocked, having not passed a single bill since May.

Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa pressured leaders of the rival parties to reach a consensus on the Sewol bill by this weekend in order to reestablish normal parliamentary procedures to pass a backlog of pending bills.

The governing party, which argues that setting up a committee with full powers could damage the nation’s judicial system, is demanding that a plenary session be convened on Sept. 15 and that the speaker bring the pending bills related to citizen’s livelihoods into the session by his authority, so that the majority ruling party can pass them.

Whether the speaker can do this is also subject to interpretation and debate.

The NPAD warned that, if the speaker and the ruling party passed bills this way, the Assembly would descend into an even deeper crisis.

Chung has delayed any decision on the matter and said he will hold a meeting with party leaders on Sept. 15.

Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye