Why people want their former president jailed

Jeong Mae-ju, a makeup artist, leaves former President Park Geun-hye’s home in southern Seoul, Wednesday, one day before Park is scheduled to attend a court hearing for a decision on whether to issue an arrest warrant for her. / Yonhap

By Kim Rahn

One of the key reasons the Constitutional Court gave when it removed former President Park Geun-hye from office early this month was that she reneged on her pledges to cooperate with prosecutors in their investigation into the presidential corruption scandal.

She instead attempted to cover up the truth and made her aides tell lies, according to the verdict.

This is part of the reason that more than 70 percent of Koreans believe Park should be imprisoned to stand trial even after she was removed from office.

All eyes are now on whether a court will approve the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant today.

Park decided to defend herself by attending the court review. She is again expected to deny all allegations in the massive corruption scandal involving her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil, by saying she was not aware of her associates’ wrongdoing.

But such an explanation has so far failed to persuade the people, but only disappointed them. According to an opinion poll by Realmeter last week, 72.3 percent of the respondents said Park should be put behind bars before trial, while 25.1 percent disagreed.

It was her responses and attitude toward the scandal which drove public sentiment such that the people became fed up with the former leader.

When the scandal emerged, people were shocked at the allegation that the former president let Choi, who did not hold a government post, meddle in state affairs, shared confidential documents with her and extorted money from conglomerates for Choi.

But they were more shocked at Park’s responses to the allegations. She denied all of them, but evidence later showed much of what she said were lies. Park also kept changing her explanations little by little.

She first promised to undergo the prosecution’s questioning, but coming face to face with it, refused. Park then promised to answer an independent counsel’s questions, which she again reneged on. Cheong Wa Dae also kept refusing investigators’ search requests.

All these rejections were contrary to Park’s initial promises that she would cooperate with the investigation to reveal the truth; her actions, which were different from her words, were rather seen as an attempt to conceal the truth and destroy evidence.

What people wanted to know was the “truth” about the allegations, but Park refused to answer their questions, only insisting on her own account which had already lost credibility.

Another issue about the truth was her alleged absence from duty on the day the ferry Sewol sank in 2014, which emerged again along with her impeachment. As Park did not play her role as head of state during the first critical seven hours after the sinking, the people wanted to know what she was doing at that time. She failed to give a reliable explanation, and what people only found out was that she spent an hour having her hair done, which added fuel to public fury.

The scandal threw the entire country into confusion for about half a year, resulting in national division between pro- and anti-Park protesters, the nation’s first removal of a president and an early presidential election.

But Park showed no remorse or gave an apology; rather she indicated that she did not accept the Constitutional Court’s ruling to remove her, and believed all the investigators’ findings were false.

The irrational behavior of Park supporters also irked people. Park’s defense attorneys for the Constitutional Court trial were rude in their remarks and eccentric in their actions. One of them, Seo Seok-gu, tried to wave the national flag, the Taegeukgi, which Park supporters are using as their symbol. Another lawyer, Kim Pyung-woo, insulted the judges while complaining about court procedure. Seo and Kim were also more active in anti-impeachment rallies on the street than in the hearings at the court, which they were supposed to focus on.

Ahead of the Seoul Central District Court’s review of the arrest warrant, some pro-Park lawmakers submitted a petition Wednesday to ask it not to issue the warrant after obtaining signatures from 82 lawmakers.

They claimed arresting the female ex-president will be too harsh and cause even more social confusion.