[EDITORIALS]What's the Main Issue Here?

The way that the Millennium Democratic Party and law enforcement authorities have dealt with the leak of an intelligence report on the activities of the president's son in Jeju has been marked by overreaction, excessive emotion bordering on hysteria, haste, and unreasonable attitudes. We cannot shake that initial impression after closely looking into the actions of the party and the authorities since the Grand National Party disclosed the report as part of its charges in the Lee Yong-ho scandal. Not long after Shin Seung-nam, the prosecutor general, commented that there is a limit to lawmakers' exemption from liability for their speech in the Assembly, the police carried out a raid on the Jeju provincial offices of the Grand National Party. The police also requested a warrant of arrest for a detective at the Jeju Police Precinct after it arrested an official of the opposition party without a warrant. The Jeju District Court refused to issue warrants against the two men, but the MDP filed another complaint at the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office. We can see great tenacity by the ruling party and law enforcement offices. Despite critical public opinion and the court action, they continue political attacks on the opposition with side issues.

The Jeju District Court rejected the warrant request because it thought the passing of the report was a customary information exchange and the report's content was not an official secret. In other words, the court ruled that the warrant request was unreasonable. Kim Hong-il's activities in the Hotel Jeju Shilla are no secret; he stayed there with family members and acquaintances. The police brought disgrace on themselves after labeling the report a secret acquired in the line of duty. The raid also looked increasingly unjustified after the court's action. Then the head of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency answered both yes and no to lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties when he was asked whether the report at issue was concocted by the police and the GNP working together, as the MDP claimed.

If the MDP stubbornly pursues this matter, it will begin to look like they are trying to bury the Lee Yong-ho investigation by watering down the the facts. The further this sideline show is pursued by the MDP and law officials, the more it looks like they intend to protect the president's son, whatever it might cost them in public support.