Ever since the scandal tied to President Park Geun-hye erupted, her most loyal ally in the parliament, Saenuri Party Chairman Rep. Lee Jung-hyun, has been facing a backlash from party members.
A growing number of Saenuri members are demanding a complete overhaul of the party leadership which is chaired by Lee and dominated by his fellow Park loyalists. Some members are even fasting while calling for Lee to step down immediately.
Yet, the three-term lawmaker is refusing to budge.
“I’m an elected Saenuri leader whose term ends on Aug. 9, 2018,” Lee told reporters Wednesday, marking his 100th day in the party’s top office. “No one can ignore average members’ votes that chose me.”
Instead of bowing out, he pledged to retain his position at least until late December, a month before the party elects new leadership on Jan. 21, 2017.
Rep. Lee’s insistence on his own timeline has pushed Saenuri to split.
Earlier in the day, those critical of the embattled President Park, Lee and other pro-Park loyalists formed their own leadership organization and held their first meeting. A heavyweight figure, Rep. Kim Moo-sung, even mooted possible impeachment of Park.
They cite Lee’s “special relationship” with Park as the rationale for his reluctance to leave the top office. Lee may be helping the president who is facing the biggest crisis in her political career but not the Saenuri Party.
The chairman is hampering efforts to revamp the conservative bloc and win back voters, they say.
“He is like a cult member worshipping President Park,” said Gyeonggi Province Gov. Nam Kyung-pil, one of Saenuri’s presidential hopefuls, on Tuesday. “He is unqualified to lead a political party.”
Lee’s “extraordinary” allegiance to Park is well known in political circles.
Since running for parliamentary election for the first time in 2004, Lee was considered to be a “mouthpiece” for Park, who then led the main opposition Grand National Party, a precursor to Saenuri. He worked as a senior spokesman until Park was defeated in the party‘s primary for the 2007 presidential ticket.
Though most GNP members who supported Park switched sides and worked for Lee Myung-bak, who went on to win the presidential election, the politician decided to stay with Park.
Lee once told Park that he would leave politics if he lost the opportunity to work for her. Such a loyal attitude has earned the trust of Park, who observers say has commitment issues after seeing her father, the late President Park Chung-hee, assassinated by his long-time confidant.
“I have never seen Lee say what I didn’t say,” Park famously said in 2013 when she served as GNP leader. After Park was elected president, Lee worked as senior presidential secretary for political affairs, and later, as senior secretary for public relations.
Even after being elected as the Saenuri Party leader in August, Lee’s relationship with Park changed little.
“What the president thinks and what the Saenuri Party thinks should not be different,” said Lee during his first party meeting after taking office on Aug 10. “If you think that confronting the president is the right thing to do, you don’t deserve to be Saenuri member.”
Now, with Park’s approval rating at a record low of 5 percent and the public’s call for her ouster growing, Lee looks determined to be in the same boat with the beleaguered president.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
