Unlike her predecessors, President Park Geun-hye had been expected to keep on good terms with the National Assembly after her inauguration because she was a five-term lawmaker. But even during her “honeymoon period,” her relations with the political establishment rapidly reached a very low point.
In this regard, her latest effort to improve communication with the political community is a belated but welcome move.
The nation’s first female leader will meet with the leadership of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) over dinner Friday for the first time since her inauguration in late February. On Tuesday, she hosted another dinner for the leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and had a luncheon meeting with other parliamentary leaders on Wednesday.
No doubt, the series of meetings with political leaders, which come amid mounting security and economic crises, must be good news for people who have been fed up with dead-end partisan confrontations. Park’s Friday meeting with the opposition leaders, in particular, is of great significance in that it could mark a turning point in starting a “politics of dialogue and communication.’’
After only one and a half months in office, Park has come under fire for her top-down, secretive and go-it-alone style regarding personnel appointments and government reorganization. As a result, she has yet to finalize her Cabinet formation because several ministerial nominees bowed out for a variety reasons.
People’s support for her has been on the wane with her approval ratings lingering in the low 40-percent range recently, compared with the 51-percent support she had when elected in December. Approval ratings can undergo ups and downs, but this is no simple matter, given that a new head of state needs to push for reforms from the outset.
Hopefully, Park will use the gatherings to appeal to the public with a new mindset toward the opposition. It’s encouraging that she said during a meeting with the governing party leaders, “I will try to listen to the party as much as I can on all issues from now on.’’
This positive attitude will have to be applied to relations with the opposition. This means that she must regard the opposition as a genuine partner in state affairs and make efforts to establish a new and forward-looking relationship with it.
The DUP, for its part, needs to know that the opposition is no longer an onlooker to affairs of state. Rather, it must cooperate in earnest, especially on issues directly linked to national security and people’s livelihoods. Opposition for the sake of opposition will no longer be tolerated.
We hope that the upcoming meeting won’t be a one-time event and will serve as the first of many occasions for the President and rival parties to discuss state affairs extensively.