The People Power Party's two top leaders — party leader Jang Dong-hyeok and floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik — are pursuing sharply different strategies inside and outside the National Assembly, raising concerns within and beyond the party that the divided approach could create a leadership vacuum.
According to political sources, Jang plans to attend a suffrage rally in Gyeonggi Province on Thursday and visit Gimhae in South Gyeongsang Province on Saturday. A trip to Daegu is also under consideration as he continues his campaign outside the Assembly.
Jang has focused on building public support outside the legislature since a ballot shortage marred the June 3 local elections. After visiting Gwangju on July 15, he skipped the National Assembly's Constitution Day ceremony on July 17 and instead appeared at Olympic Park in Seoul, rallying supporters with calls of "fraudulent election" and "re-election."
Jeong, by contrast, has been escalating the party's offensive inside the Assembly. The PPP has decided to launch an immediate filibuster if a comprehensive special prosecutor amendment — extending the investigation period and expanding personnel for the three probes into insurrection, Kim Keon Hee and the Marine corporal death case — is put to a plenary vote Monday.
At a supreme council meeting Monday, Jeong said the move amounted to an extension of political suppression. "Another name for the second extension of the comprehensive special prosecutor is an extension of the opposition's crackdown-driven political climate," he said. "The problem lies in the fundamental self-contradiction of the Lee Jae Myung administration and its double-standard governance embedded in that climate."
The PPP also appears set to maintain its boycott of standing committees for now. The party has refused to participate in the remaining seven standing committees after the Democratic Party of Korea unilaterally elected chairs for 11 committees, including the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.
Critics both inside and outside the party argue the division of roles between the two leaders is eroding the PPP's cohesion. Cho Gap-je, head of the online outlet Chogabje.com, said on SBS Radio Monday that "the party leader has joined hands with protesters while pushing for a nationwide re-election based on the lie of a fraudulent election," adding that "floor leader Jeong tried to put on the brakes through a party caucus, but it did not work — the party keeps racing ahead and is heading toward a collision."
Voices within the party are also calling for a strategic rethink. With negotiations over the second-half Assembly committee structure deadlocked for an extended period, some members argue that a minority opposition party can only hold out for so long, and that the PPP should return to the Assembly and take charge of at least some standing committee chairmanships.
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
