The modus operandi of President Park Geun-hye in getting her message across is to speak on behalf of the “people.” Park has always preferred to say “people” rather than “I” as an emphatic subject for her statements.

In her declaration of the presidential run on July 10, 2012, Park used the word “people” a total of 80 times, making the “people’s happiness” her campaign catchphrase.

The same tendency was displayed when Park came out swinging at the opposition, the National Assembly and especially her own party, during a speech at the Cabinet meeting on June 25.


Park said, “The very reason for the existence of the political circles is not for the sake of their political fortunes, but for the people, but that still does not seem to be the case.”

Park said the main political parties have failed to endorse hefty portions of the key economic bills, while hastily agreeing on those that are deemed politically advantageous. She called them traitors and said that was not what politics was about.

Declaring that she was vetoing the recently endorsed National Assembly Act revision, she singled out Saenuri floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min for negating her key policies by buckling under political pressure and the weight of personal interest. The revision would have enabled the legislature to request changes in government ordinances.

Park’s raw show of contempt seemed to take the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy aback, while the Saenuri Party ducked in fear.

Park’s remarks effectively accentuated the political greed among the rival parties and exposed the callous debauchery of the in-house contest for power.

Even the most politically apathetic spectators looked on with curiosity as to what prompted the president to lash out against a single lawmaker, even one who had been her close confidante, although their relations have since turned noticeably sour.

Debate ensued over the appropriateness of Park’s remarks, with some saying she was out of line to suggest people vote against “unfit” politicians. Political observers offered their own takes on the fate of the Saenuri leadership and the relations between Cheong Wa Dae and the legislature.

The schedule of the National Assembly, humiliated by the president’s unbridled judgement of its integrity, was inevitably delayed.

Park’s outburst immediately set the Saenuri Party in motion. Barely a day after Park’s statement, it decided to discard the controversial revision, and reiterated they would not participate after the Assembly speaker decided to put it up for a revote in July’s first plenary session.

The party pushed Yoo to offer an apology to the president, while pro-Park members, who had been sidelined by the non-Park faction up until then, resumed their bold front and demanded he step down from the post.

It also reined in endless news coverage on the government’s slipshod measures on the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak, as the media became captivated by the unprecedented nakedness of the internal power game at the conservative party.

It reminded the Saenuri Party that without her omnipotent presence, it would be left with no political heroine.

To some staunch sympathizers, Park was pushed to her limit by the manipulative antagonists.

It was, indeed, an incredible act of politics by Park.

In her delivery, Park went on to offer a lesson to the legislature on what politics is.

“Politics is to stand in for the will of the people, (politicians) must speak for the people and it must not be used for sake of one’s own political philosophy or reasoning,” she said.

The line between what a leader truly believes in and what the people believe it to be is often so fragile and subjective that even decades of history fail to define it.

Perhaps, Park is really acting on a belief that what she stands for is the ultimate answer.

But regardless of what her truth is, excluded from the picture seems to be the people themselves, whose lives continue to be largely irrelevant to the political upheaval going on.

It will take more than speeches to persuade everyone that her mantra of politics for the people is more than rhetoric, or even at least to condone the politicians’ political use of the term “people.”

The people ― conservative or progressive, rich or poor, young or old ― will continue to fight their daily battles as the Saenuri Party scurries to pick up the pieces, the NPAD struggles to take advantage of the fight and Cheong Wa Dae grasps at its thinning influence, all in the name of the people.

Lee Joo-hee is the national desk editor of The Korea Herald. She can be reached at jhl@heraldcorp.com. ― Ed.