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President Roh Moo-hyun officially announced his departure from the ruling Uri Party during a dinner with key party officials on Thursday. Every five years now, the incumbent president has given up his membership in the ruling party in his final year in office. Former presidents Roh Tae-woo and Kim Young-sam gave up their membership due to conflicts with the ruling party¡¯s presidential candidates, while Kim Dae-jung left due to corruption scandals involving his three sons. And now President Roh is continuing this dreadful tradition. This is a politically embarrassing phenomenon that seems to happen only in Korea.
But there is a difference between President Roh¡¯s break from the party and the departures of his predecessors, whose exits came out of desperation. Roh, to be sure, is in a desperate situation of his own, but he chose to leave. This is not the first time he has left a party after all, he defected from the then-ruling Millennium Democratic Party to found Uri. An incumbent president quitting two ruling parties is probably an unprecedented feat.
There are reports that Roh¡¯s departure from the Uri Party came after close consultations with top party officials. The party asked the president to step aside while it splits up and regroups under a new name, and the president simply chose this time as the right window of opportunity to do so. This is no different than the premeditated exodus of Uri Party lawmakers recently. They simply want to try anything to fool voters during presidential elections at the end of this year.
Recently, the president appeared on TV and appealed to the public to support the ruling party. The lawmakers who left the ruling party have said they would continue to support the president. They may be saying different things on the outside, but they are all part of the same group. Roh may have judged that it would easier for him to pursue a constitutional amendment changing presidential terms in office after he leaves the widely unpopular Uri Party.
The former three presidents quit their political activities soon after they left the ruling party. They had no choice. But Roh has said publicly that he will continue political activities even after he leaves office. He rejected opposition calls for him to be politically neutral, saying they were unrealistic. For President Roh, leaving the ruling party does not mean a break with politics, but rather, signifies a new political beginning. In short, the mass defection of Uri Party lawmakers is a big show and so is the president¡¯s departure from the party.
Roh appears to be the planning manager and main cheerleader for the ruling party in its election campaign, and he wants to serve as the president at the same time. At this rate, the country will stay in a chaotic state until the end of his term. Surely the president cannot keep doing this to the public until his last day in office.
What can the public expect? The only way to resolve this situation is for the president to spend the remainder of his term acting like a president and not the campaigner for Uri. The president has stirred up a considerable amount of controversy with the words he has uttered and the policies he has pursued. The public has grown tired and simply hopes things will remain quiet until the next administration takes over. It would be nice if the president could simply leave the ruling party, not as an election maneuver, but for the benefit of the public. The best thing he could do during the remaining 10 months would be to present an image that lives up to the people¡¯s expectations for the president.
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