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Thursday morning reminded me again how fearsome the public can be. The message the people conveyed through the general election is this simple and clear: "We will provide the Lee Myung-bak administration with the conditions to work. But say goodbye to the notions of his government the president has entertained during the 100-odd days since his election. Few would have imagined that the same voters who gave him a stunning victory by a margin of 5.3 million votes would three months later crack the whip like this.
Had the Grand National Party won a sweeping victory in the general election as exit polls indicated, what would be the situation have been? The masterminds of internal disturbances in the GNP over the nomination of parliamentary candidates, would have bragged about their intention to challenge the party leadership in the July party convention; loud calls for the Grand Canal project to get underway would be heard from and around the presidential office; and personnel appointments would continue as usual.
As a natural consequence, internal discord would continue within the GNP; the people would be split into two groups, one for and the other against the canal project; and civil servants, aggrieved by unfair personnel management, would want the next five years over soon. But the public consensus revealed in the election is that these things should not happen. It also calls on the government to readjust the order of priority among major projects, taking the wishes of the people and the state of the nation into account.
The public also sent a clear message to the United Democratic Party, whose status has changed from ruling to opposition party. Parliamentary seats gained by progressive parties including the UDP and the Democratic Labor Party fell short of half of those won by conservative candidates. The principal players in the progressive governments of past decade were all ousted , and only a few barely managed to hold on to their political lives in the regional corners. The UDP will know what that means.
Indeed, the people most likely to misunderstand the public message are the forces clustered around former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye. There are 54 of them inside and, for the time being, outside the party. Effectively, they constitute a third parliamentary party after the GNP and UDP. They should ask themselves what was the will of those voters who cast their ballots for their peculiar banners of ¡°Pro-Park Alliance¡± and pro-Park independents. Did the voters mean to tell them to push ahead with making Park the next president without delay? Did they mean they build a bridgehead to that end by capturing the party leadership in the July party convention? The moment they believe that, and behave accordingly, they will be plotting their own downfall. People embraced them only to punish the arrogance of the Lee faction and reprimand it for its breach of a promise to take its rival faction along. This means that Park Geun-hye acted the role of the weak superbly.
President Lee will be far from thrilled by the outcome of the election. His closest aides were ousted, while prospective legislators with whom he feels uncomfortable have increased in number. But the chief executive should thank the people. It's a lesson of our political history that presidents who feel too secure are prone to excessive speed and self-righteousness, which directly leads to the failure of an administration. We don't need to trace this trend back very far; we need only recall the track record of the Roh Moo-hyun administration after it swept the legislature, buoyed by repercussions from the unsuccessful attempt to impeach Roh.
The president has secured sufficient potential friendly forces within the legislature whose support he can solicit when he pushes ahead with tasks that are urgent for the country and essential to the population. The combined conservative parliamentary seats -- for the GNP, Liberty Forward Party and pro-Park forces -- exceed 200. The problem is that potential friendly forces can turn into potential enemies at any time. We therefore need presidential leadership that can make firm friends of potential ones. In a nutshell, the chief executive will have to get busy with some politics. The principles of politics are tolerance, dialogue and compromise, at anytime and anywhere. For the sake of transcending inside and outside the party, favor and spite, the president should tolerate, talk to and compromise with his opponents. A successful presidency awaits at the end of this path. The chief executive ought to bow his head and thank the people, who, through the general election, tipped him off to the pitfall of excessive speed and self-righteousness, and showed him the way to becoming a successful head of state through tolerance, dialogue and compromise.
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