[EDITORIALS]A bad taste remains

The Millennium Democratic Party seems to have gotten over its disastrous loss in the June 13 local elections. It is a relief to see the party picking up the pieces and undergoing self-reform acts to resume its job as the second largest party. Even if the current face the party has on is a makeshift one aimed at the re-elections on Aug. 8, that face has at least saved us from the evils of having the second biggest party in the nation wandering aimlessly.

The efforts put up by the presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun and party leader Hahn Hwa-kap to cope with the situation while adopting anti-corruption mechanisms are welcome. While many of their promises seem to be gestures with the re-elections in mind, they have at least proven that they are trying to meet the demands of the public.

Despite these promises of improvements, something about the party still leaves a bad taste in the mouth. There's a strong possibility that all this talk about getting rid of corruption and reorganizing the party will end in just that, talk. One core issue in the task of overcoming the in-house conflict is whether the party should get rid of its oligarchic style of leadership or not. The fact that the reformists who are calling for the abolishment of the current system are the very members who introduced it to the party seems to suggest desperateness on their part to evade responsibility and gloss over the matter. There are signs everywhere that the reformists hurried the deal through, ignoring opposition from the minority. The party's frantic rush to cut off all ties with President Kim Dae-jung and his troubled sons isn't pleasant to watch either. It is not right for those who competitively tried to cover up the "gates," without looking back on their own deeds, to point their fingers at others and shout, "Your fault." The "Roh Moo-hyun program" for anti-corruption involves laws recently revised by the government to prevent corruption. Pretending that political corruption is the fault of the old system isn't going to work. If the Millennium Democrats truly respect the people's decisions as shown in the June 13 local elections, and are ready to reform themselves, they should revive the National Assembly from its brain-dead status. The party should not let its dissatisfaction over the allocation of committee chairs delay the normalization of the Assembly.