Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Cha Gyu-geun holds a press conference at the National Assembly's media room Monday to announce his bid for a supreme council member seat. [Yonhap]
Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Cha Gyu-geun holds a press conference at the National Assembly's media room Monday to announce his bid for a supreme council member seat. [Yonhap]

Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Cha Gyu-geun announced Monday his bid for a supreme council member seat at the party's July 25 national convention, saying the party must deliver answers that people can feel in their daily lives or risk losing public support.

Speaking at a press conference at the National Assembly, Cha said many people are talking about the party facing a crisis and the need for self-strengthening, and many are asking where the Rebuilding Korea Party is headed.

"Self-strengthening does not mean becoming stronger among ourselves," he said. "Party members' pride must translate into citizens' sense of political efficacy. The urgency of prosecutorial reform must expand to encompass housing inequality, climate, safety and people's livelihoods."

He pledged to transform the Rebuilding Korea Party into "a forward base that squarely tackles the livelihood issues of the people," adding that the grievances heard on the ground should become the party's agenda, the agenda should become legislation and budgets, and those measures should lead to changes that citizens can actually feel.

Cha, a former head of the immigration bureau at the Ministry of Justice under the Moon Jae-in administration, joined the Rebuilding Korea Party ahead of the 22nd general election and has since served as chief of staff to the party leader, policy committee chair and senior floor deputy leader.

Former Secretary-General Hwang Hyeon-seon also declared his candidacy for a supreme council seat, saying, "A merger without self-strengthening is nothing more — and nothing less — than humiliation."

"The driving force of self-strengthening is the party members themselves," Hwang said. "The Rebuilding Korea Party was built by members who answered the call." He said he would expand member participation in accountable politics by introducing a performance-evaluation system for proportional-representation lawmakers and incorporating member votes in the election of the floor leader.

Hwang added that he would voluntarily shorten his own term and called on other candidates for party leader and supreme council seats to be prepared to step down without hesitation if they fail to achieve self-strengthening. "I will do my best for one year and then step down unconditionally," he said. Hwang is considered a close aide of former party leader Cho Kuk, having worked alongside him in the civil affairs office at Cheong Wa Dae.


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