(If you are bored with my politics posts, just keep moving. I am sure something interesting to you will be up soon.)
Guess which party’s members said the following during a National Assembly session yesterday (DongA):
“The public expects a mature government and a tolerant ruling party. The public does not want them to be activists who challenge the power and engage in ideological disputes.”
Wham!
“I am confident that it all originated from the sincerity of a ‘foolish Roh Moo-hyun,” said Kim. “Only when the president frees himself from political disputes will the sincerity of the current administration bear fruit.”
Biff!
“In my view, the president is at fault for the chaos and the incompetence of the current administration.”
Pow!
If you said the Grand National Party, you would be wrong. Those fighting words came from a couple of members of the president’s own Uri party. As the DongA piece points out, the Uri party had been pretty good about supporting the president on the floor of the National Assembly (while sometimes trashing him behind closed doors). This other quote gives a clue to why things have changed:
[Choi Kyu-sik] added, “To that end, we should see to it that the president focuses on state affairs like diplomacy, security, and economy rather than on politics so that he is not involved in political disputes.”
That seems to be a response to President Roh’s recent apparent forming of a progressive alliance with Kim Dae-jung as a counter to Goh Kun’s attempt to get some members of the Uri party to join his new cult of personality moderate party. I suspect that Choi and other Roh critics in Uri will soon come out as part of the Goh faction.
2 Comments
Sounds like Roh is having a “Julius Caesar” moment there (as in: http://www.answers.com/topic/et-tu-brute ).
Of course these clowns didn’t say any of this over all the years the prez and his posse engaged in ideological disputes, which was his entire presidency.
Keep these posts coming Mr. Jackson, no need to apologize.
“To that end, we should see to it that the president focuses on state affairs like diplomacy, security, and economy rather than on politics so that he is not involved in political disputes.”
Diplomacy, security and economy are exactly the things Roh has made a hash of and should not be allowed to touch.