By Chung Min-uck
The Saenuri Party’s prolonged controversy over determining the primary rules to select its candidate for the Dec. 12 presidential election gets atrocious as minor presidential hopefuls began to insult frontrunner Park Geun-hye.
“Although my dream was to dedicate everything that I have to the public, I thought it hypocritical to not getting married,” said Kim Moon-soo, ruling party presidential hopeful and Governor of Gyeonggi Province, during a meeting with reporters on Sunday. “Living by oneself like a Buddhist monk, I guess, makes it hard to live an ethical life. So I decided to get married to be honest to myself.”
Despite Kim’s denial of any intention to criticize Park, party members understood his words to target the party’s leading presidential candidate. Park is single with no children.
Rep. Lee Jae-oh, another presidential hopeful and close aide of President Lee Myung-bak, attacked Park’s chances of becoming president by referring to her gender.
“It is too early (for South Korea) to have a female president,” said Lee, Monday. “Without having experienced military duty, it is hard to exhibit good leadership.”
Rep. Chung Mong-joon has also been adding fuel to the feud between Park and the non-mainstream presidential hopefuls calling the former party chairwoman a dictatorial figure in managing party affairs.
Meanwhile, the three underdogs plan to further push for a primary rule that opens up voting to non-party citizens by holding the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee, responsible for a leak of party members’ information.
The ruling party came under fire last week after an accusation that a ranking official sold party members’ personal information to a text message provider prior to the April parliamentary elections.
The fierce criticism soon brought a backlash from Park loyalists.
“They are trying to change the primary rules that were set in 2005 after nine months of work. It is an insult to party members,” said Lee Jung-hyun, a Supreme Council member of the ruling party, Tuesday.
Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun criticized Lee Jae-oh on the same day for “not being manly enough to compete with Park face-to-face.”
“It is not good for the Saenuri Party to have this kind of conflict,” said Rep. Cho Won-jin. “Is it necessary to have a candidate who has a support rate of one percent make defamatory remarks on a party candidate who has a 40 percent support rate?”
The in-fighting comes as the ruling party faces a standoff over how to select its presidential candidate.
Members loyal to Park want to stick to the current rule of only allowing party delegates and members to cast ballots, while the three other hopefuls are insisting on an open primary.