Koreans have greeted the new year - and the true start of the third millennium and the 21st century - with precarious yet soaring hopes for a peaceful and prosperous year. Since the year 2001 is the year of snake by the Oriental zodiac, people hope that in the new year they can slough off the past year's torment of economic plight and other earthly hardships, much as a serpent sheds its skin every once in a while.
As if to respond to the popular wishes, President Kim Dae-jung pledged in his New Year's message that he would strive to reinvigorate the national economy and restore political tranquility, accenting that he would "take the righteous way" and "uphold just principles" in conducting state affairs.
What has since turned out is the revival of a political alliance between his Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) and the splinter United Liberal Democrats (ULD) led by Kim Jong-pil, a capricious political figure, who had bolted a similar partnership on the eve of the general elections last April. The president, whose ruling party falls short of a parliamentary majority, wanted a stable force to control the legislature that has been overshadowed by the die-hard opposition Grand National Party (GNP), the largest force in the National Assembly.
Already being questioned is whether the restored
alliance can survive the salient ideological and policy discrepancies between the reform-oriented MDP and the ultraconservative ULD, let alone conflicting partisan interests, although the two Kims vowed to sustain the partnership until the end of the president's term in office, which will come in just about two years. For instance, the ULD has been dead against an MDP move to revise the controversial National Security Law and lukewarm, if not negative, about a future visit to Seoul by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, on which President Kim anxiously counts for the success of his engagement policy toward the North.
Aside from the uncertain future of the coalition, what has aroused public censure, let alone the opposition's outrage, was the process that led to the two Kims' second honeymoon. Coinciding with the president's statement that stressed political principles, a sneaky and unprincipled incident took place as three MDP lawmakers suddenly changed their party affiliation to the ULD in their "voluntary" attempt to help the party with only 17 Assembly members to make up the minimum quorum for forming a parliamentary negotiation group, which the splinter party had desperately longed for with the MDP's blessing.
At first, MDP leaders claimed that they had no prior knowledge about the trio's relocation. But, in the wake of mounting public disapproval of the ruling party's arbitrary loaning of elected legislators to a potential coalition
partner, President Kim conceded that the transfer was "undesirable yet inevitable." An ironical outcome is that the ULD has failed to form a negotiating group because one of its vice presidents, Kang Chang-hee, was so adamant in rebuking the trio's lease as unethical and shameful that he had to be banished from the party.
As the opposition mounted its censure against the ruling camp for the trade of lawmakers, the prosecution disclosed a scandal in which the previous administration's powerful intelligence agency, called the Agency for National Security Planning, had allegedly funneled some 100 billion won to the GNP's predecessor, the then ruling New Korea Party (NKP), as campaign funds for the 1996 general elections. Taking advantage of the revelation, the ruling party escalated its condemnation of the opposition GNP, as well as former president and NKP head Kim Young-sam, who instantly declared an all-out war against Kim Dae-jung.
Under the circumstances, President Kim met with GNP president Lee Hoi- chang in compliance with a schedule that had been worked out weeks earlier. But, the talk naturally bogged down with the two conferees exchanging mutual accusations. With the meeting's breakup, President Kim sped the process of forging an alliance with Kim Jong-pil, however dubious its prospects may be.
In a sense, Lee, often dubbed a political novice by the ruling elite, has fallen in a trap devised by the two tricky
veterans, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil who incidentally turned 76 and 75, respectively, over the past weekend. President Kim, whose popularity polled by a local paper a fortnight ago dropped to 28 percent from 70 percent following the inter- Korean summit last June, had to do something quickly lest his leadership be undermined by a premature lame-duck syndrome. Instead of winning cooperation from the recalcitrant opposition, he opted for an alliance with the ULD.
For all that, it is sad to see the nation's political arena severely marred by a free-for-all among political actors from the outset of the new year. What's more, the scramble for power in anticipation of the next presidential election, due in late next year, has derived in part from the employment of unprincipled expedients, which would only harm the credibility of political leadership, already at a low.
Another notable aspect of the latest scuffle is that there are signs for a possible revival of dominance by the three Kims as Kim Young-sam is about to muscle his way to the front of politicking, a dominance that has been widely detested by the public for their arbitrary and imperious manipulation of local politics for the past several decades.
Courtesy: Korea Times