Park pulls constitutional rabbit out of hat

Resurgent talk of a constitutional revision is setting the new stage for a power game among political conservatives.

Park Geun-hye, leader of the smaller faction in the Grand National Party, last week reasserted her support for changing the current single, five-year presidential term to allow a president to serve two successive four-year terms and let presidential and parliamentary elections take place simultaneously.

National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o also expressed hopes that political parties will begin the revision debate in earnest around the July 17 Constitutional Day.



The proposal is not new. Politicians widely agree that the tenure limitation hinders the long-term implementation of policies and has often caused early lame-duck status for a president.

The current constitution, resulting from a 1987 amendment, has also been criticized for concentrating too much power in the chief executive. A shift to a parliamentary government or a presidential-parliamentary dual cabinet system has been proposed.

Park`s remark, however, took on politically sensitive overtones as it came at a time of power struggles within the ruling party.

Observers say she apparently intends to use the constitutional revision as the central aspect in her challenge to President Lee Myung-bak and GNP mainstreamers in the lead up to the next presidential election in 2012.

Park is an undisputable frontrunner among potential presidential candidates in the GNP and broad conservative political circles.

She was defeated by Lee in a bitter primary race for the 2007 election. Her faction has since been alienated by Lee and GNP leaders in terms of government and party posts, plus candidate nominations for parliamentary elections.

Factional strife boiled up again ahead of the April 29 by-elections. The president`s elder brother Lee Sang-deuk, a GNP bigwig, pressured one of Park`s close associates to give up candidacy. He refused, ran independently and beat his GNP rival.

Calls for reconciliation between the two factions have mounted since the GNP lost in all five parliamentary contests last month.

In response, GNP leaders floated a proposal to select Park`s key aide Kim Moo-sung as next floor leader.

Unexpectedly, Park rejected the offer. During her visit to the United States last week, she denounced the GNP leaders in front of reporters for passing responsibility for the electoral debacle to her faction.

Her remark on the constitution came during a lecture at Stanford University just after the meeting with the press on Wednesday.

Answering a question from the floor, Park said the basic law should be changed so that the presidential and parliamentary elections be conducted simultaneously. The presidential election currently takes place once every five years and the parliamentary vote once every four.

During a news conference in San Francisco on Saturday, she reaffirmed that she has consistently supported the constitutional change.

2012 is the best time for such a change with the next presidential election due in December and the parliamentary election in April.

It is the year for both elections, which comes once in 20 years under the current disparity in presidential and parliamentary terms.

However, if it is to happen, Lee will have to shorten his term by several months.

An unwritten consensus is that any constitutional extension of a presidential term does not apply to the incumbent.

Many politicians believe Park is seeking to take the driver`s seat in the amendment campaign and rally political forces behind the cause down the road.

Overhauling the political power structure was proposed by former President Roh Moo-hyun a year before the 2007 election. All opposition parties rebuffed it.

Many, including Park, agreed with him in principle but thought the timing was not right. Park even called him "a very bad president" for trying to use the issue for electoral gains.

The Asssembly speaker revived the matter last year, pledging to achieve revision before his two-year term ends in mid-2010.

But his proposal was quickly put on the back burner with parties preoccupied with a series of contentious bills and the economic crisis.

An experts group commissioned by the National Assembly has submitted draft reports to the speaker for revision in early April.

By co-opting the constitutional card, Park appears to be aiming to tip the GNP power balance in her favor.

She is expected to use the constitutional change as a rallying point among conservative forces who feel they have been alienated by the Lee administration.

In addition, the revision is already widely supported by the public and politicians from across the ideological spectrum.

To conduct elections under a new Constitution, revision should be achieved in the first half of 2011, so that parties can begin processes for candidate selection in the latter half.

That means political parties should begin debate in the second half of this year or the first half of 2010, given the necessary parliamentary processes and referendum will take more than one year.

It is unclear whether President Lee and his allies will back the constitutional change.

But if the GNP mainstream falters again in by-elections this October and local elections in June next year, Park could expect to gain momentum for her big-ticket gamble which would enhance her chances of gaining the GNP leadership and its presidential candidacy.

Park is drawing a grand picture, in which her rivals` fence-mending overtures, including sharing some party posts, look trivial, observers say.

By Hwang Jang-jin



(jjhwang@heraldm.com)