[Editorial] GNP’s Ugly Internal Fight

While the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) has been scrambling to reveal alleged corruptive behaviors by presidential aides for the fourth consecutive day at the National Assembly’s Special Budgeting Committee, the GNP members finally came to internal conflicts over whether or not their revelations could earn public approval. Some of the GNP members argued, “Those unproven revelations would make the public discredit our party further,” while other members argued back saying, “We have enough evidence, and the truth will become tangible by the prosecution.”

GNP Secretary General Lee Jae-oh suggested yesterday that the party should no longer be involved in the political revelation war, saying, “Unconfirmed facts would be buried.” However, it seems that conflicts are not likely to settle down any time soon since the party’s principle position is that it would not diminish its attacks against President Roh until he accepts the special prosecution law.

Keeping an eye on the ruling party and making a revelation about any corruptive practices of the ruling party is a main function of the opposition party. There have been many cases in which a big political scandal or corruption was disclosed by the opposition party. Back in 1995, the divulgence by then-MDP member Park Gye-dong exposed the secret money account of former President Roh Tae-woo to the public.

However, there should be reasonable grounds before making any political revelations. Just trying to disparage a political figure without sufficient proof will make people feel disillusioned and disgusted about political parties and politics itself. Even the most infamous revelation expert, Chung Hyung-gun of the GNP, said, “There should be principles, integrity, and proven facts in order to make a proper revelation.”

Many of the allegations made by the GNP are hard to understand and hard to give consent. Its allegation that the former presidential general secretary Choi Do-sul illegally received 90 billion won from business chaebols after the general election in 2002 is not very comprehensible when taking into account the economic condition of Busan at the time. Even its member Chung said, “Wouldn’t all the Busan citizens laugh at us?”

GNP Secretary General Lee argues, “During the Kim Dae-jung administration, the MDP also proposed a number of suspects about us in the same manner.” But this does not justify the recent dirty war conducted by the GNP. Bad habits should be liquidated. We hope that GNP will not continue to wage the same ugly war just to get even with the MDP.