[Editorial] Prerequisites for President Roh`s Bipartisan Leadership

President Roh Moo-hyun`s decision to depart from the Millennium Democratic Party is inevitable to some extent. It may be difficult to expect state affairs to be run smoothly under the current situation where the president is supporting the newly formed party while maintaining his MDP membership. However, his departure from the MDP may not mark an end to the current political confrontation and confusion. This may be the beginning of an uphill battle the president is now facing.

It is a rare case in the Korean history that the president has no affiliated party. The president Roh seems to enter an uncharted territory because it is an unprecedented move for the president to declare to give up his membership of the MDP, which threw its support behind him to win the presidency. Against this backdrop, it is natural that the public is raising more concerns than expectations over the president`s decision.

As the president has repeatedly clarified, he would only focus on pending state affairs like promoting the sagging national economy and the livelihood of the underprivileged. The Korean public hopes that the president will show a firm leadership to conduct bi-partisan politics. To this end, close consultations with opposition parties are crucially needed. For dialogue, the president should show his willingness of extending compromise and generosity. Although the president promised more direct consultations with the public, this attempt sometimes leads the president to resorting to populism, which undermines the foundation of the representative democracy.

President Roh has yet to make a decision on whether to join the newly formed party. His no-party affiliation will lead to more confusion in running state affairs. To minimize damage incurred from his no-party membership to state affairs, the president should declare his joining of the new party as soon as possible. The president`s joining the new party before the upcoming general elections is a right path to enhance national stability and political predictability. This is what responsible politics stands for.

He should be aware that if the president remains unaffiliated to any political party during his remaining days of the presidency, he might unintentionally provide a possibility of a shift in a power structure such as switching to the parliamentary system by himself. It is because under a situation where the president has no party affiliation, the legislature is highly likely to serve as the pillar of the government`s power.