If Rep. Park Geun-hye wants to be president

Rep. Park Geun-hye

There is no question that Rep. Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party is the most viable presidential candidate at the moment as she consistently has the strongest showing in public opinion surveys.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Dec. 19 presidential poll is hers to win. The 60-year-old needs to take care of a couple of things to put her stamp on the presidency, if that is indeed possible.

Opponents say she has weak interpersonal skills, is stubborn and inflexible, and difficult to communicate with.

According to them, these are stumbling blocks that will make it difficult for her to win the presidential election slated for December, if they are not properly managed.

The allegations were probably at play when Park chose Times Square near Youngdeungpo Station, a crowded urban district where shopping malls are located, as a venue to make the crucial announcement today.

Middle- and lower-income families reside in the neighborhood of the shopping street as it used to be home to manufacturing sector jobs in the 1970s and 80s.

Asking for anonymity, an aide said Park picked the venue to send the message that she is willing to communicate with middle- and working-class families, her policy target groups, and heed their voices.

Park is set to make the presidential bid public amid clear signs that the primary will turn out to be a rubber stamp to endorse her as a standard-bearer of the ruling Saenuri Party.

On the eve of the event, two of her rivals, Reps. Chung Mong-joon and Lee Jae-oh, announced they were giving up their participation in the primary.

During a news conference, Chung alleged that unthinkable things are occurring now in the ruling party, about a quarter century after a true democracy came to the country in 1987.

He said a dictatorship is justified and even praised by the ruling party, referring to the Saenuri Party leadership’s ignoring his call to hold an open primary.

“I decided not to run in the primary to select a ruling party candidate, because if I do this will mean that I endorse authoritarian leadership,” Chung said.

If there is anyone who attempts to achieve his or her goal at the expense of due procedure, the lawmaker alleged, they are ignoring democracy.

Park’s rivals said her family background could end up working against her presidential ambitions.

Earlier, Rep. Lee Jae-oh called Park “the daughter of a dictator.” She is the daughter of the late President Park Chung-hee, the longest-serving leader in the modern history of Korean politics. Her aide countered the allegations.

Asking for anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, the strategist working for the Park campaign argued that Park is a principled and credible leader.

“She is thoughtful, sincere and listens to what others say and this will lead to her relatively slow response to the issues,” he said.

The strategist also countered the allegation that she is the daughter of the dictator by calling on the public to look at what she had done when she led the ruling party as chairwoman. <The Korea Times/Kang Hyun-kyung>

news@theasian.asia