[EDITORIALS]New party must prove itself

Our Open Party must take the opportunity to make a clean start, now that it has appointed new leaders. Since it was launched on Nov. 11, Our Open Party has only brought disappointment to the people.
The party was formed by those members who had broken off from the Millennium Democratic Party and the Grand National Party. They called themselves reform-minded newcomers, but the party’s behavior so far has not strayed from politics as usual.
Our Open Party claims to be the government party but has failed to lead the government by proposing or pursuing new reform policies successfully.
The party brought doubts upon its identity from the beginning by allowing fair weather politicians and those tainted by allegations of corruption to join.
It advocated the severing of cozy ties between politics and business and called for an end to corruption, but it has lost public trust by continuously changing its story on the allegations of illegal presidential campaign funds now under investigation.
Our Open Party has vowed to be a democratic party, but once it realized that its power and popularity was in a free fall, it started to cling to President Roh Moo-hyun to the point of being dubbed the “Roh Moo-hyun Party.”
The new leaders must show that their party is indeed different from the others by leading the way in implementing a more democratic and transparent management of the party and boldly renouncing its vested interests.
There are still many aspects of the election laws and political party laws that were designed to give established parties and incumbent legislators an advantage. Our Open Party must set about reforming these laws even it means self-sacrifice.
It should produce politicians ready to risk their own political gains in its attempt to break the structure of regionalism that was apparent in this year’s general elections.
Our Open Party’s future depends on whether it will follow through on these tasks. Only when it succeeds will it be able to free itself from the yoke of being labeled a “traitors’ party.”