South Korea is in a state of emergency now. This is less due to the fact that North Korea is threatening, once again, to turn the South into a “sea of fire” than because Seoul is without a government to cope with the crisis.
President Park Geun-hye continued her attacks on the opposition parties Thursday, saying they are not giving her the opportunity to serve the nation by refusing to pass a government restructuring bill. How plausible are her appeals, however?
Park has not even formally appointed her first foreign minister and other Cabinet members even after the National Assembly confirmed them. Kim Haing, Park’s spokeswoman, said it would look “not very pretty” to appoint ministers one by one before the reorganization bill is approved. She might have said it half as a joke, but few Koreans are laughing.
President Park’s “virtual sabotage” of state affairs cannot be justified under any pretext.
Worse yet, her governing party rejected a proposal from the opposition to pass the bill on condition that the ruling camp guarantees it will not attempt to influence the selection of heads for public broadcasting companies. President Park and her party argue that the two issues are completely unrelated accusing the opposition of trying to trip up the smooth launch of the government.
For any sensitive viewers, however, the two public broadcasters’ subtle ― often noticeable ― siding with the governing party candidate during last year’s election coverage was undeniable. Deepening the opposition’s suspicion, Park and her Saenuri Party have yet to keep their pledge to replace Kim Jae-cheol, the head of MBC who was at the center of politically skewed reporting. If the governing camp has no intention of repeating it, all they have to do is to accept the opposition’s revised offer.
The opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) is of course not without problems with its provisional leadership swayed by hard-line factions. But it belongs to political common sense that the responsibility for any political gridlock and administrative logjam lies more with the ruling camp. If anything, the current deadlock is far more due to the Saneuri Party’s spineless leadership, which has not dared to cross President Park while being completely sidelined by the secretive, self-righteous leader in both drafting of the retooling bill and specific personnel appointments.
A stag at bay is a dangerous foe. Park should give her opponents reasons to make concessions by accepting the DUP’s latest offer.
In this partisan stalemate, time is not on the President’s side. Opposition parties can continue without power for long if they have problems, but not the chief executive, who should take ultimate responsibility for all aspects of governance ― good or bad.