President Park should communicate in person

President Park Geun-hye on Thursday met with new leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party at her office Cheong Wa Dae in a friendly atmosphere. A Cheong Wa Dae official said they kept smiling and exchanged well-wishing words throughout the meeting. The president asked Saenuri chairman Kim Moo-sung to united with Cheong Wa Dae and the administration for people-centered politics. Kim pledged that the party will work for the president`s success, which he said was the party`s success.

As co-shareholders of the current administration, the ruling party and the presidential office should always communicate for the success of the administration and management of state affairs. Ironically, meetings between key officials from the party and Cheong Wa Dae make headlines, indicating that their relations were extremely abnormal. The recent internal feud in the Saenuri Party over a revision bill for the National Assembly law and the resignation of former Saenuri floor leader Yoo Seung-min over the bill originated from the awry relations and lack of communication between the two sides. While both sides are to blame, President Park is particularly responsible.

The latest meeting between the president and the ruling party leadership came for the first time in five months. The Saenuri chairman`s exclusive get-together with the president was the first in three months. How can the president genuinely communicate with her party by going only through her proxies such as her chief of staff or senior secretary for political affairs. Meetings between her proxies and party officials did not go smoothly and were rare. The conflicts between the party and Cheong Wa Dae over national pension reform and the revision of the National Assembly law were caused entirely by the lack of communication.

President Park should commit herself to and take the initiative in establishing a smooth relationship among the party, her office and the administration, rather than asking the Saenuri leadership to do so. Her remarks sound as if she wanted others to do a good job while she would stand by and watch. In the party-administration-Cheong Wa Dae relationship and the Cheong Wa Dae-National Assembly relationship, the president is not a ruler who gives instructions and takes recommendations but a politician and a chief executive who should have dialogue with them and seek solutions together.

If the ruling party and Cheong Wa Dae is to achieve true communication and an equal relationship, President Park should no longer act like a ruler who occasionally grants party officials opportunities to meet with her. She needs to get directly involved in politics, rather than putting forward her proxies. She should start by attending in person high-level meetings among the party, the administration and Cheong Wa Dae.