Ahn Cheol Soo's resignation over scandal underpins 'new politics' motto
Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo had little to lose from his resignation as cochief of the People‘s Party on Wednesday.
By assuming responsibility for the ongoing rebate scandal, he not only reemphasized his “new politics” slogan, but also shifted his focus to a more distant goal -- next year’s presidential race.
But his retreat left his party with a leadership vacuum from the very first month of the new parliamentary term, hindering the rookie opposition party from making its presence felt.
“I will make my best efforts as an ordinary member of the party,” Ahn told reporters Thursday at a policy workshop, making his first public appearance since his resignation.
He also attended the parliamentary committee meeting on education, culture, sports and tourism, signaling that he would continue his regular legislative activities.
Despite his humble gesture, however, his resignation was also widely considered an opportunity to consolidate his position as one of the top presidential hopefuls.
“(We) should have responded more resolutely to the two (disputed) lawmakers,” he said at the Supreme Council meeting, prior to announcing his resignation.
“I have always resented the way that conventional parties handled corruption scandals and do not want to echo their behavior.”
Ahn and his cochief Rep. Chun Jung-bae stepped down from their leadership posts on Wednesday, taking responsibility for a widening kickback scandal involving some key party members.
“Politics is about taking responsibility, which is why (German sociologist) Max Weber underlined ethical responsibility,” Ahn said, responding to previous criticisms that he had failed to stay true to his slogan of new politics.
On the day before Ahn’s resignation, the party had shelved the sanctions against the proportional representatives in question -- Reps. Kim Su-min and Park Sun-sook -- to await prosecutorial indictment. The decision, though based on the party’s constitution, drew bitter responses.
Adding to the pressure was his close ties with Rep. Park, who was not only the party’s secretary-general and chief campaign strategist, but also one of the closest aides to Ahn since his political debut in 2012.
Stepping down was thus considered the only plausible option left for Ahn, who has his eyes set on the presidential election slated for December 2017. His popularity ratings, according to local pollster Realmeter, stood at 12.8 percent this week, trailing U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and main opposition hopeful Moon Jae-in.
Relieved from the political duties as party founder and initial leader, Ahn is expected to henceforth focus on his individual career as a lawmaker.
So far in the current parliament, Ahn‘s legislative achievements have been limited to the proposal of a fair growth bill, which seeks to alleviate tax burdens for venture firms. Ahn was a venture businessman and the developer of a computer antivirus program before he stepped into politics.
Some, however, had sought to dissuade him from stepping down, citing the impeding leadership vacuum.
“Our priority is to deal with the given circumstances, not to escape from them,” said Rep. Park Joo-sun, the Supreme Council member and parliamentary vice speaker. But it was Ahn himself who refused to compromise.
The resignation of the cochiefs left floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won in charge. Park was appointed to lead the party’s emergency committee until new leadership is elected.
The party thus entered the same leaderless state as the two leading parties, both of which are to be steered by their respective emergency committees until their upcoming national convention.
The ruling conservative Saenuri Party, after failing to establish a new leadership in the wake of the April 13 general election defeat, has brought in former Constitutional Court Justice Kim Hee-ok as its interim leader. The Minjoo Party of Korea has been led by conservative economic adviser Kim Chong-in ever since former party chief Moon Jae-in stepped down in an effort to end factional feuding within the party.
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(For context)
People's Party lawmaker appears for questioning over rebate allegation
People’s Party’s Rep. Kim Su-min, who is the key person of interest in the party’s corruption allegation, appeared for prosecutors’ questioning Thursday.
“There was no rebate of (any) sort. I will clarify everything with the prosecution,” the first-termer said before entering the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office.
The National Election Commission reported Kim, along with two other senior party members, to prosecutors on June 8 on charges of receiving kickbacks worth 238 million won ($207,000) from companies commissioned to produce campaign materials and television commercials for the April 13 parliamentary election.
The watchdog believes the money was handed over in the form of rebates out of the 3.2 billion won they paid to the firms by having them pay back some of the money to another advertisement agency named Brand Hotel, which Kim had once headed, under false subcontracts.
The NEC has claimed that Rep. Park Sun-sook, then the party’s secretary-general who oversaw financial affairs, and Wang Joo-hyun, the deputy secretary-general, conspired with Kim. The court has since issued search warrants.
Park is scheduled to be questioned on Monday.
The prosecution was expected to zero in on what role Kim’s former company actually played and what type of service it was paid for. The party had explained that Brand Hotel was responsible for designing the party’s identity.
The prosecution is also investigating another allegation raised by the NEC that the party exaggerated the expenses spent on producing election campaign materials in their application for state reimbursement upon the election.
The NEC has reimbursed just 1.59 billion won out of the party’s reported 2.11 billion won spent on campaign materials, saying that the remaining 515 million won was deemed to have been spent excessively based on the general transaction trend.
The rebate suspicion has rattled the third-largest party headed by entrepreneur-turned-politician Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, who has rose to political prominence with his new and clean politics mantra.
Ahn has offered a show of regret over the allegation and promised to thoroughly investigate and deal sternly with anyone responsible.
The party’s countermeasures committee for the case, chaired by professor-turned-politician Rep. Lee Sang-don said last week that based on their investigation, there was no wrongdoing and the money transacted between the commissioned companies and Brand Hotel remain in the latter’s bank account, and thus are irrelevant to the party.
Some of the People’s Party members have also contended that the prosecution’s probe was politically motivated based on false accusations raised by other subcontract companies that failed to win the bid for the party’s campaign.
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OP Note: The People's Party (국민의당) was the party that broke up the two party system and is now the third largest party in South Korea's National Assembly. Their party is particularly popular amongst younger voters, and is considered to be 'anti-establishment' and trying to change the status quo. (Sound familiar?) More info in the ontd_p post that covered the April elections here for anyone interested. And lmao I can already tell next year's presidential elections is going to be messy. I'll be here to report that messiness, ontd_p, wish me luck.