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A meeting of senior Grand National Party policymakers on Saturday decided to allow party members who have been convicted on corruption charges to apply for nominations if they have not served jail terms. GNP regulations state that no member sentenced for corruption is eligible for nomination for a National Assembly seat. Now the party has decided to be ¡°flexible¡± in applying this regulation. The word ¡°flexible¡± is the GNP¡¯s way of saying it has decided to be lax. The decision ended a fight between party chairman Kang Jae-sup and party secretary general Lee Bang-ho over the candidate-selection process, and the two officials were seen smiling in front of the cameras.
As a result, Rep. Kim Moo-sung, a close aide to former GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye, will be able to run on the GNP ticket in the general election in April. In 1996, Kim was sentenced to a W10 million fine (US$1=W944) and an additional W20 million as a penalty for receiving W20 million in bribes from a company that wanted to win a contract to provide mobile communications services using the trunked radio service (TRS) system. GNP regulation Article 3, Clause 2, created last year stipulates that lawmakers who have been sentenced in court for receiving illegal political funding or for violating corruption regulations are barred from seeking the party¡¯s candidacy. A fine is still a punitive sentence delivered by a court of law. Even if the GNP takes not only a ¡°flexible¡± approach but stretches the regulation as far a possible, Kim is ineligible for the party¡¯s candidacy.
Rep. Kim does have reason to feel victimized. After he was sentenced, Kim was pardoned and was elected twice on the GNP¡¯s ticket. He may feel he has been pardoned both legally and politically. He is also the senior lawmaker in one of the two main factions within the GNP. It may seem politically unrealistic to bar such an official from even applying for the party¡¯s nomination.
The party regulations are something the GNP set up as an act of self-purification after it suffered defeats in reelections and by-elections. The GNP paraded around trying to appear squeaky clean after setting up a regulation it would not be able to keep, using its most-hallowed regulation merely as a performance to entice the public.
As this incident unfolded, one veteran GNP lawmaker reportedly said politics is above the law. His own son, who has a record of corruption, has applied for the GNP nomination for a National Assembly seat. The GNP, which rose to power promising to rectify the damage done by the Roh Moo-hyun administration, during which politics prevailed over the rule of law, is now putting politics above the law again. At this rate, president-elect Lee Myung-bak and Park should face the public and say honestly that the party made up a regulation it could not keep and change the regulation once and for all. And the party should never again bother to stress law and order within its ranks.
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