Reform-minded members call for distance from unpopular president to win elections


A controversy was brewing within the ruling Grand National Party on Thursday after a key member of its leadership team openly called for President Lee Myung-bak to leave the party.

Party leadership played down the provocative remarks by Kim Jong-in as a personal view. Hoverer, some reform-minded members threw weight behind Kim, saying the party should distance itself from the unpopular president to win the coming general elections.

Rep. Park Geun-hye, the party’s chairwoman, attempted to contain the controversy, saying the president’s membership was never discussed within the leadership council.

“It was never discussed and I don’t agree to differentiation tactics just to look different,” she told reporters.

Kim, who was handpicked by GNP chairwoman Park to lead party reforms, said Wednesday that the president should decide his course of action, citing widespread public discontent over his management of state affairs.

“It is a problem if the national leader does not have such a political sense (to decide what’s best),”he said.

He said the party faces a tough task in elections, because voters are likely to pass their judgment on the president. He said the party needs to make clear to the voters that it has parted with Lee before asking for their votes.

Rep. Kwon Young-jin echoed the view.

“It is right for the president to step aside, if that helps the GNP’s fresh start,” he said on a radio Thursday.

The ruling party, led by Park, Lee’s in-party rival and hopeful successor, has sought to distance itself from the unpopular president, discarding Lee’s core policies including low taxes. Yet, it was the first time that someone with a leadership position stated the need for the president to leave the party.

Lee’s loyalists in the party fumed.

Rep. Lee Jae-oh, a close aide to the president, lashed out at the new leadership of the GNP.

“It still gets worse,” he tweeted, criticizing the party’s recent controversial steps.

Another pro-Lee loyalist, Rep. Chang Jae-won, said it was a cheap tactic to earn an advantage in the elections by forcing the president out.

The president, who is barred by law from seeking re-election, has been besieged by a series of corruption scandals involving his cronies, relatives and himself.

Cheong Wa Dae, the presidential office, on Thursday refrained from commenting on the issue, saying it wasn’t the party’s official stance.

“What Kim said was his personal view, not the official stance of the party,” Park Chung-ha, presidential spokesperson, said.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)