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The Uri Party officially disbanded at a national convention on Saturday, where its members decided to merge into the United New Democratic Party. It took just three years and nine months for the Uri Party to meet its demise following its launch in November of 2003 after toppling the Centrist United Democratic Party, which had put candidate Roh Moo-hyun into the presidential office. In the beginning, the Uri Party had vowed to lead Korean politics for the next 100 years. For two hours after the convention opened, the Uri Party was unable to gather the quorum needed to decide on the party¡¯s closure. The convention hall was reportedly filled with shouts, shoving matches and curses.
Uri leader Chung Sye-kyun said during the convention that he humbly sought the forgiveness of the public for failing to succeed in promised reforms due to the party¡¯s lack of abilities. Even the chairman of the national convention said the Uri Party had failed to read the will of the public, while the party¡¯s arrogance has come back to haunt it.
If those words were true, then the convention should have simply marked the unconditional disbanding of the Uri Party and nothing more. At least the core members of the party should have announced their departure from politics, taking responsibility for the party¡¯s mistakes. That would have left an impression that the members of the Uri Party were genuinely seeking forgiveness.
But what the Uri Party decided at the convention was quite different. The party vowed to win the December presidential election by joining hands with the United New Democratic Party. The Uri Party¡¯s former leaders, floor leaders, prime ministers and ministers, who are responsible for the failures of the party and this administration, have already begun campaigning for the top office under the banner of the UNDP. If there is a difference, it¡¯s the fact that the name cards of the 138 Uri Party lawmakers now have the UNDP logo on them.
If a political party makes a mistake and ends up being indebted to the public, then it should pay for that at the voting booth. This is the basic principle of responsible politics. Over the last four years, the Uri Party accumulated a lot of debt to the Korean public. But when the presidential elections came up, the party simply set up a new company in order to avoid that responsibility. This is a crime, no different than a heavily indebted company closing down and opening up under a different name, simply to avoid its financial obligations. Only the voters will be able to punish such politicians and hold them responsible for their mistakes.
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