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An Uri Party workshop for the party's general election victors held at a hotel in Gangwon Province's Seorak Mountains from Monday ended in a victory for the party's pragmatic wing over more reform-minded lawmakers.
Heated arguments were expected as party reformers demanded that Uri establish its ideological identity, the Munhwa Ilbo reported, but through appointment discussions, the "reform faction" lost out to the "pragmatic faction," which is supported by the majority of general election victors.
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Uri Party leaders who include Chairman Chung Dong-young and Floor Leader Kim Geun-tae wave their hands when their names are called during the workshop for election victors held in a hotel on Mt. Seorak in Gangwon Province on Monday.
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Party chairman Chung Dong-young said Tuesday in a review of the party appointment discussions, "The Uri Party is a pragmatic party in which progressive conservatives and progressive reformers co-exist... We don't agree with pragmatism premised on ideas that forbid reform, nor do we agree with reform that thinks everyone should think the same as the progressives."
Chung stressed, "We're talking of 'conservative' and 'progressive,' but ideology can change from person to person and from situation to situation... In the end, one mustn't be confined by ideological fences; one must become free from ideological rigidity."
Observers say that Chung's comments were meant to head of requests by the party's reform wing to clearly delineate the party's ideological confines.
He said, "If you look at Western ideologies, progressives and conservatives are delineated in accordance with the level in which they believe the state should involve itself in the economy; in our country, it has been the Sunshine Policy that has been used as the ideological yardstick to separate progressives from conservatives... Yet the GNP has come out in favor of providing cash aid to North Korea in connection with the Ryongchon Station disaster and is moving toward changing its confrontational attitude toward the North, so the Sunshine Policy's utility as an ideological yardstick is becoming less clear than in the past."
He said, "The GNP is a far-right Cold War party, not a conservative party... The Uri Party is a sincere reform party in which moderate conservatives and moderate progressives healthily co-exist."
He added, "We must take our parliamentary power, secured by the democratization generation, and increase both the participation and authority of the citizens... For this, if you think we need legal and media reforms, we must start them, but before that, we need the support of the people, and we need to regulate positions and speeds,"
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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