Ham In-kyung: 'Show the public governance they can trust first'

Some within PPP say party should join reform talks

People Power Party spokesperson Ham In-kyung [Newsis]
People Power Party spokesperson Ham In-kyung [Newsis]

The People Power Party stood firm Sunday against the Democratic Party of Korea's proposal to launch a constitutional reform committee, saying livelihoods must come before constitutional reform.

PPP spokesperson Ham In-kyung said in a statement, "How brazen. Take care of people's livelihoods first, properly clean up the botched cabinet reshuffle, and give the public a responsible explanation."

Ham said Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok had called the nomination of Kim Seung-won as Justice Ministry candidate "a better appointment the more you look at it" until just days ago — only for Kim Seung-won to ultimately withdraw. "He called it a fine appointment, yet without so much as a proper apology or a word of accountability, he now wants to push constitutional reform," she said.

Turning to President Lee Jae Myung, Ham said that just three months ago Lee had described jeonse — a lump-sum deposit rental system — as "a form of private lending" and characterized the decline in jeonse supply as "a normalization process." Yet when confronted by citizens desperately searching for jeonse housing, he dodged the question by quibbling over wording. "This is a president who has said he will not seek re-election — are we supposed to take him at his word and rush to rewrite the constitution?" she said.

Ham added, "Before talking about changing the constitution, show the public governance they can actually trust."

However, voices within the party have also called for joining the constitutional reform discussion. Four-term lawmaker Kim Tae-ho, who had previously argued for participating in such talks, wrote on Facebook on Friday — shortly after President Lee's press conference — that "now that President Lee has made clear he has no intention of seeking re-election through constitutional revision, it is time to end the wasteful debate over re-election and begin discussions on constitutional reform." He added that "the National Assembly, the government, and the ruling and opposition parties must together draw up a blueprint for the nation's future."

In the same post, however, Kim said he found it "regrettable that Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok presented a Democratic Party-led agenda and direction for constitutional reform without sufficient consultation between the ruling and opposition parties," and said, "The constitution must not be used as a tool for any particular party's political purposes or to shift the public narrative."


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