By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, 66, said at a rally of contenders of the main opposition party in Incheon Monday that he is the right leader who can help the economy get back on track.
His rival ex-Grand National Party (GNP) Chairwoman Park Geun-hye, 55, argued voters should not be distracted by Lee in the party nomination because their wrong decision will cause the party to lose the presidential election again.
``Under the military dictatorship, fighting against the authoritarian government was considered the right thing to do and calling for democracy was a virtue,'' Lee said.
``The era of dictatorship is gone and it is job creation to which leaders should pay attention. The presidential election is all about who can move the economy forward,'' said Lee, a former CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction.
Park said choosing Lee would turn out to be a mistake.
``Those who fail to survive the tough qualification screening in the primary are unlikely to win the presidential election. Tighter scrutiny will go on in the presidential race,'' she said.
A flawed, vulnerable and unreliable candidate will not be able to win the tough race, she said.
Experts analyzing the slogans see them as being based on the idea that the GNP lost the 2002 presidential election because it chose the wrong candidate.
``It seems to be a widely held illusion in the GNP that the party lost the last election because it had a nominee who was in trouble. The interpretation is wrong,'' Rep. Chung Hyung-keun said. Lee Hoi-chang of the GNP, who was under fire for an alleged draft-dodging scandal involving one of his sons in the 2002 campaign, unsuccessfully ran in the election.
They believe that the then party candidate was responsible for the defeat and they have nothing to do with the loss of the election, Chung continued.
The lawmaker suggested it is time to look at such external factors as who is going to win the liberal camp's primaries and whether or not they can be united under one roof.
Prof. Park Hyo-chong of Seoul National University said the qualification screening is heading toward a dead-end fight between the two GNP contenders.
``It is time to think about the political cost of the deadly in-fighting,'' Park said at a seminar at the National Assembly, Monday.
The political scientist said miscalculations and misunderstanding are two core factors that drove the main opposition party to lose previous elections.
``In 2002, the GNP decision-makers shared the misleading idea that voters who held anti-ruling party sentiment or were critical of the ruling camp were their supporters,'' he said.
Park added they also failed to grasp the fact that presidential hopefuls' approval ratings and popularity fluctuate and there are many swing voters.