Ex-Supreme Court justice joins Park camp

Ahn Dae-hee

Rep. Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party presidential candidate, appointed Ahn Dae-hee, a former Supreme Court justice, to head a committee for political reform, Monday.

The current leading presidential candidate also appointed the heads and members of three other key committees within her camp. Kim Jong-in, a former lawmaker and senior presidential secretary, was tapped as chairman of the committee to craft campaign pledges in the economic and welfare sectors.

Park’s naming of Ahn to overhaul the political arena, including the selection of candidates to run in elections on the Saenuri Party ticket, drew attention because of his career.

Kim Jong-in

As a prosecutor, he was in charge of the probe of the slush funds scandal involving several lawmakers of the former Grand National Party (GNP), now the Saenuri Party, back in 2003.

The investigation results put the GNP, then the main opposition party, in deep trouble ahead of the 2004 National Assembly elections because this showed a practice of money-for-nominations was common in the party.

Voters turned their back on the GNP because it was portrayed as a corrupt entity. Its approval ratings fell sharply. By every standard, the party was seen as hopeless and helpless.

Park was called upon to save the GNP as public distrust toward it was so deep, months before the elections.

After taking a set of reform measures, the GNP was able to garner some 120 seats, which came as a surprise given the party’s rock bottom ratings before the elections. Few doubt that the GNP could have done this without the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee.

Rep. Park’s appointment of Ahn to the key post of her campaign team was construed as meaning that she anticipated the lucky break would again place her in the top job in the upcoming presidential poll.

On condition of anonymity, an insider said Park was eager to have Ahn in her campaign team even before his term of Supreme Court justice ended in July.

“Ahn was initially scheduled to fly to the United States for a fellowship program for a year. But he decided to join the Park camp because he accepted her polite but persistent requests to help her out in the presidential election,” he said.

Her key aide Kim came up with the initiative of economic democracy aimed at a redistribution of wealth by levying more taxes on the haves while protecting the poor with supportive social policies.

The economist is to orchestrate the economic policy visions of the Park camp.

Rep. Lee Ju-young was named for the committee for the planning of the presidential election campaign while Rep. Choi Kyung-hwan was appointed to serve Park as chief secretary. <The Korea Times/Kang Hyun-kyung>

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