Representative Park Geun-hye speaks at the first meeting of the emergency council yesterday at the headquarters of the Grand National Party in Yeouido, Seoul. The members of the emergency council were announced yesterday. [YONHAP]

The Grand National Party’s emergency leadership under Park Geun-hye yesterday took a first step to salvage the sinking ruling party by offering to surrender its lawmakers’ immunity from arrest and prosecution.

Representative Park, the interim head of the GNP, also disclosed yesterday morning her emergency leadership council, which includes six reformists from outside the party, and asked for senior party members’ endorsement. The Standing National Committee of the party immediately approved the 11-member council.

In addition to Park, four lawmakers - floor leader Hwang Woo-yea, chief policy maker Lee Ju-young and Representatives Joo Kwang-deok and Kim Se-yeon - were included in the leadership.

The six outsiders on the council are: Kim Chong-in, former Blue House senior secretary for economic affairs; Cho Dong-sung, professor of business administration at Seoul National University; Lee Sang-don, professor of law at Chung-Ang University; Lee Yang-hee, professor of law at Sungkyunkwan University; and two business leaders, Cho Hyun-jung of BIT Computer and Lee Jun-seok of Classe Studio.

Representative Hwang Young-cheul, the newly named spokesman of the GNP, said the emergency council decided to create an in-house committee to monitor the prosecution’s investigation into the recent cyberattack on the National Election Commission, a major source of public distrust of the party because an aide to one of its lawmakers was accused as the culprit.

Although the police concluded that the chauffeur of GNP lawmaker Choi Ku-sik was solely responsible for the attack, which paralyzed the Web site of the election watchdog, suspicions are high that someone higher up in the party and at the Blue House were behind the crime.

The cyberattack prevented voters from locating their polling stations during a mayoral by-election in October. Observers said a lower voter turnout would be advantageous to the GNP candidate and disadvantageous to the eventual winner, liberal independent Park Won-soon. The case is now being investigated by the prosecution.

“We want the prosecution to investigate the case thoroughly to satisfy the public by answering all suspicions,” Hwang said. “The GNP will cooperate to make sure that the prosecution’s probe will proceed properly.”

The emergency council also decided to ask Representative Choi to leave the party.

At the meeting, the leadership also agreed to have all GNP lawmakers give up their immunity from arrest and prosecution during a National Assembly session. The plan will be voted on at a lawmakers’ caucus to be adopted as an official party platform.

The measure to surrender immunity is intended to allow the prosecution to thoroughly investigate scandals involving GNP members. “There is no need to revise the law,” said spokesman Hwang. “We just have to decide that we will voluntarily surrender the rights.”

Hwang said the emergency council will meet weekly, while smaller discussions will be held along with field trips to gather public opinion.

After the painful defeat in the Seoul mayoral by-election in October, the entire GNP leadership stepped down to help reverse the party’s plummeting popularity ahead of the next year’s general and presidential elections. After intense debates on how to salvage the party, the Grand Nationals revised the party’s constitution to allow Park, a presidential contender, to become their interim leader and to carry out an overhaul. She was also given the power to name the members of the emergency leadership.

The emergency council was filled with reformists from a wide range of fields representing a broad spectrum of age groups. The lineup of the interim leadership, which includes a 71-year-old former economic official and a 26-year-old businessman, was seen as an important indicator of the direction of Park’s reforms ahead of next year’s elections.

Before the Standing National Committee meeting yesterday to approve the leadership, Park introduced the new members individually. “It is time for us to act on our thoughts on how the party will win back the public’s trust,” she said.

Kim Chong-in is a former four-time lawmaker armed with a strong economic background. From 1990-92, he served as the senior economic affairs aide in the Roh Tae-woo Blue House and introduced “public concept of land ownership” through which conglomerates’ ownership of real estate properties was limited.

After ending his fourth term as a Democratic Party lawmaker in 2008, Kim was named professor emeritus at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He is also one of the mentors of Ahn Cheol-soo, the software mogul-turned-liberal political phenomenon.

He has also been a long-time adviser to Park, as he served as an economic official in the government of Park Chung Hee, her late father, who ruled the country from 1961-79.

“When he met with Park recently, he advised her to prepare for an alliance with Ahn,” a party official told the JoongAng Ilbo Monday. “He will likely speak strongly on efforts to reform conglomerates.”

“Without creative destruction, the GNP won’t be able to survive,” the official said.

The youngest member of the council is Lee Jun-seok, CEO of Classe Studio. The 26-year-old businessman started an educational volunteer group in 2007 as he graduated from Harvard University. The program offered high-quality tutoring to children from lower-income families in person and over the Internet. With a group of people who worked with him in the volunteer group, Lee launched the education IT company this year.

Professor Cho Dong-sung is a scholar who has participated in various fields. He is head of the Ahn Jung-geun Memorial, dedicated to the Korean patriot who assassinated Japanese colonial leader Ito Hirobumi in 1909, and once served as a director of the Hope Institute, a social service program of the liberal Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. His vision of “design management,” which introduced the concepts of design to business administration and industrial engineering, is highly respected in Korean academia.

Professor Lee Sang-don is a well-known critic of conservative views but he has been a strong critic of the Lee Myung-bak administration. He was a co-leader of public law suits to stop Lee’s signature four-rivers restoration project.

According to Park Geun-hye’s aides, she recommended the professor’s columns to her aides.

Cho Hyun-jung, chairman of BIT Computer, is a first-generation start-up businessman who has not been close to politics. He told local media that he decided to join the emergency council although he is not a GNP member and despite his deeper ties to liberals.

Professor Lee Yang-hee is a renowned child rights advocate. She served as chairwoman of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child for two terms from 2007-11.

Park’s choices of four lawmakers for the emergency council also indicated her intention for an overhaul. Representative Kim Se-yeon, 39, is the youngest lawmaker of the party, who has led self-reform efforts within the party. He is secretary general of the Minbon 21, the first-term reformist group of the GNP. Representative Joo Kwang-deok is also a member of Minbon 21.

Representative Hwang Young-cheul, the new GNP spokesman, was the only GNP lawmaker to vote against the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement this month.


By Ser Myo-ja [myoja@joongang.co.kr]


복지엔 좌·우 없다는 박근혜 비대위 … MB와 차별화

지난 7일 유승민·원희룡·남경필 최고위원의 동반 사퇴에 따른 한나라당의 지도부 공백 사태가 20일 만에 정리됐다. 한나라당은 27일 상임전국위원회(위원장 김학송 의원)를 열어 박근혜 비상대책위원장이 요청한 10명의 비대위원 임명안을 만장일치로 의결했다. 내년 4월 총선 때까지 당의 인적·정책적 쇄신을 추진할 새 지휘부가 출범한 것이다. 비대위는 첫 회의부터 거침없는 강공 드라이브를 펴며 쇄신의 신호탄을 쐈다. 비대위 인선을 통해 박 위원장이 추구하는 쇄신코드도 분명해졌다.

우선 과감한 개혁정책을 통해 이명박 정부와 차별화하겠다는 의지가 짙게 드러난다. 박 위원장과 함께 비대위의 ‘투톱’을 형성할 것이란 평가를 받는 김종인 위원은 27일 인터뷰에서 “한나라당이 기본적 사고와 정책, 사람 등 모든 것을 변화시키지 않으면 안 되는데 지금까지도 뭐가 뭔지를 모르고 있다”고 일갈했다. 그는 “국민의 절반 가까이가 자신을 하층민이라고 생각하고, 60%는 희망이 없다고 얘기하는데 그런 국민을 데리고 어떻게 나라를 정상적으로 이끌 수 있겠느냐”며 “복지정책은 좌파 복지, 우파 복지가 따로 없는데 한나라당은 복지가 진보 진영에서나 하는 것이라는 사고가 팽배했다”고 지적했다. 이명박 정부와는 다른, 복지정책에 대한 명확한 방향 설정인 셈이다.

　정부의 4대 강 사업을 강력히 비판해 왔던 이상돈 위원도 “현 정부가 국민을 도외시하고 독선과 오만의 자세를 견지해 온 것이 이런 상황을 초래했다”며 “(현 정부는) 민주주의의 틀을 훼손했다는 게 제 생각”이라고 비판했다. 박 위원장이 개혁 성향의 초선 의원 모임인 ‘민본 21’에서 주광덕·김세연 의원을 발탁한 것도 쇄신파의 목소리를 많이 반영하겠다는 의도로 풀이된다. 이에 따라 비대위는 이번 정기국회와 내년 총선에서 서민·중산층의 요구에 부응하는 입법·공약 개발에 초점을 맞출 것으로 보인다. 이런 기조는 공천 때 대대적인 물갈이로 이어질 가능성이 대단히 크다.

　젊은 층과의 소통도 강화했다. 저소득층 무료 과외 봉사 활동을 벌이던 26세의 이준석 클라세스튜디오 대표를 당 지도부에 발탁한 것은 한나라당 창당 이래 전례 없는 파격이다. 그는 “박 위원장이 청년층 문제와 관련해서 (제게) 기대를 많이 하고 있는 것 같더라”며 “우선 취업 후 상환 학자금대출(ICL) 등의 문제를 파헤쳐 보려 한다”고 말했다. 조현정 비트컴퓨터 회장도 20~30대의 디지털 마인드를 겨냥한 맞춤형 영입으로 보인다.

　계파 색채를 희석하는 데도 신경을 썼다. 박 위원장은 비대위원 가운데 자신의 측근이나 국가미래연구원 등 외부 자문그룹을 아무도 뽑지 않았다. 이재오·정몽준·김문수계 인사들도 기용하지 않았다. 외부 영입인사들도 김종인 위원을 제외하면 특별한 친분이 있지는 않다. 한 당직자는 “박 위원장이 향후 당 운영과 공천에서 ‘탕평’ 행보를 선언한 셈”이라며 “공천 때 특정 계파의 불이익 논란을 없애려는 사전 정지 작업의 의미도 있는 것 같다”고 말했다.

　긍정적 평가만 있는 것은 아니다. 당내 일각에선 “멤버 구성을 보니 콘텐트보다는 구색 갖추기에 신경 쓴 것 같다” “교수가 너무 많다”는 지적도 나온다. 한 재선 의원은 “외부 영입인사 중에 개인적 컬러가 강한 몇몇이 자기 주장을 너무 내세우면 배가 산으로 갈 수도 있다”고 걱정했다.