Park Hong-geun "Yoon Cannot Win People's Hearts Through Criticism... Democratic Party Must Prove Competence"

Controversy Over Min Hyung-bae's Reinstatement
Ruling Party Criticized for Reversing Agreement on Police-Prosecutor Investigation Authority Adjustment Law
Beware of Divide-and-Rule and Obstruction Frames

Park Hong-geun, who is stepping down as the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, urged the new floor leadership on the 27th to focus on people’s livelihood and to promote party unity.

After the plenary session that day, Floor Leader Park held a farewell meeting. At the meeting, he said, "We cannot win the hearts of all the people solely by criticizing the incompetence and failures of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration," adding, "While we must criticize and point out incompetence, failures, dogmatism, and arrogance on behalf of the people, that is not all politics is about." He urged, "We must humbly reflect on the defeat in the last presidential and local elections and approach the people with greater sincerity, proving our competence in serving the people, national interests, and livelihoods without neglect."

He asked the next floor leader to "pursue a floor strategy that prioritizes people’s livelihood, the public, and national interests based on communication and unity within the party."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Floor Leader Park advised, "The ruling power consistently uses two strategies against the Democratic Party," warning not to fall into the frames of division and obstruction. He said, "They use a divide-and-conquer strategy to create discord within us and between us and the people, but we must not fall for it," adding, "The next floor leadership must focus on unity within the party and close communication with the people." Park also said, "They intend to face next year’s general election with the frame of obstruction, accusing the major opposition party of dogmatism," and stressed, "We must definitely support them in matters of people’s livelihood, economy, and security. However, we must carefully distinguish and ensure clear achievements in areas where the overwhelming majority of the people give strong support."

Regarding the decision to reinstate Rep. Min Haeng-bae near the end of his term, Park traced the cause to the ruling party breaking the initial agreement during discussions on the prosecution and police investigative authority adjustment law, commonly called the 'Prosecution Reform Law.' He said, "Who was it that overturned the hard-won agreement within 2 to 3 days?" and added, "Even if there were shortcomings or regrets in the process, why don’t those who caused that (reversal of the agreement) reflect on themselves?"

Park criticized, "While we also need to review parts where we were not thorough or failed to align with public sentiment, why does the ruling party not ask for any understanding, apologize, or promise to prevent recurrence to the people regarding their unfairness and unilateral destruction of the agreement?"

Regarding Rep. Min, he said, "He did not leave the party for personal gain or political ambition; he left after the party’s own bill was passed," and added, "Within the party, there are opinions that the timing is inappropriate and that a more direct apology is needed, but as far as I know, there is no opposition to his reinstatement itself."