The ruling Saenuri Party is moving to put the brakes on contentious projects pushed by the Lee Myung-bak administration to prevent criticism of them hurting its chances in the presidential election.

The attempt comes as the government faced escalating criticism against its plan to sign a controversial military pact with Japan last week without public consensus.

The government is also under fire for its rushed plan to sell Incheon International Airport and privatize the KTX, in addition to controversy surrounding the multi-billion-dollar plan to purchase fighter jets.

“As the public is uncertain about these issues, the government should not push them through and instead let sufficient discussion take place at the National Assembly before deciding whether to pursue them during this administration or in the next,” Saenuri floor leader Lee Hahn-koo told Yonhap News.

The widening schism in the ruling camp is expected to further isolate the lame duck government whose term ends in February.

“It is important to let the public feel their lives are improving by completing current projects, rather than starting up new ones,” Lee said during the party’s morning Supreme Council meeting.

Observers said it appears inevitable that the confrontation between Cheong Wa Dae and the Saenuri Party’s leading presidential hopeful Park Geun-hye will grow.

“With a lack of policy-making infrastructure (at each presidential camp), the presidential race is prone to become a battle of negative offensives. In such a situation, the government’s hyped-up push for the controversial projects is obviously a burden for the ruling party and frontrunner Park Geun-hye.” said politics professor Yoon Seung-yi of Kyung Hee University.

The government was forced to postpone at the last minute its planned signing of the intelligence sharing agreement with Tokyo last week. Although the pact was designed to enhance security cooperation with the neighboring country against escalating threats from North Korea, the covert process prompted an angry backlash from the public and opposition parties. It would have been the first such military pact to be signed between South Korea and its former colonial ruler.

Also at the center of debate is the Finance Ministry’s plan to sell 49 percent of its 100 percent stake at the leading Incheon International Airport to “introduce advanced management and improve competitiveness.”

The on-and-off plan is met by vehement protests from the public for selling the state’s key infrastructure to a private operator.

“The sale of Incheon International Airport must be decided cautiously by going through a debate at the National Assembly,” Saenuri Chairman Hwang Woo-yea said at the party’s Supreme Council meeting Monday.

Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, a key pro-Park member, also released a press statement Sunday and said, “The incumbent government that has entered its lame duck period talking about the sale of Incheon International Airport stakes will only amplify suspicions and misunderstanding.”

The Defense Ministry, on its part, is aiming to complete the fighter jet procurement program worth over 8.3 trillion won ($7.2 billion), as part of the efforts to prevent an anticipated shortage of fighter jets amidst escalating threats from Pyongyang.

The ministry plans to conduct relevant testing between July and September before making the final selection in November.

The opposition forces, however, have raised concerns that the fast-tracked project may result in an inadequate evaluation process.

Debate over the outgoing administration’s last-minute push for major projects has been rampant in the country with a single-term presidential system.

The former Roh Moo-hyun administration, for instance, was denounced for holding an inter-Korean summit just four months before his tenure ended. The late president’s proposal in January 2007 to discuss constitutional change to introduce two four-year presidential terms was also criticized by the opponents for being untimely.

“The current single term presidency was a result of our unique modern history upon the last constitutional change in 1987 where we were seeking compromise amongst rivaling politicians while stepping away from long years of one-man rule,” said politics professor Yoon Pyung-joong at Hanshin University.

“The next president should use the examples of the lame duck administrations of both Roh and Lee in order to break away from this pattern.”

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)