[EDITORIALS]You can’t trust a split party

Moon Sung-keun, a famous actor and a leading figure in Our Open Party, has suggested that his party disband. He called his party, which is ahead in the polls, a “motley party” that should break up soon.
Mr. Moon’s comments on a potential rupture in his party come as a huge surprise at a time when all parties are enthusiastically pitching their views to the voters. Mr. Moon is still asking the public to vote for his party despite his feelings about it. His views, it must be said, are quite baffling.
Mr. Moon later explained that he was only referring to an ideological fracture in the party structure, but it seems unlikely that he was making a hypothetical proposal. He was voicing the dissatisfaction of the reform-minded forces within the party, who were snubbed in the public nomination process.
Our Open Party was formed by those who left existing political parties, especially the Millennium Democratic Party, in the name of political reform. Yet it is showing signs of breaking apart after only a few months.
If the party members themselves consider their organization to be a “motley party,” how do they justify their breaking away from the Millennium Democratic Party? Our Open Party must answer to these questions and criticisms before the public.
It is an insult to voters’ intelligence for a party member to express dissatisfaction about the party’s identity and yet ask people to vote for it. Does having a high support rate make one this arrogant? Our Open Party must become humble.
Once when their ratings were not so high, Our Open Party crawled on its knees to plead with people to join. Now that it’s enjoying better fortunes, it is mulling over how to get rid of unwanted members. How can voters trust such a party?
Our society will continue to be torn apart if the government party practices exclusion and ostracism rather than tolerance and unification. When will we stop wasting our resources on radical extremism?
The people of Korea do not want narrow-minded, snobbish politics. If Our Open Party does not come to its senses and show that it is capable of taking the responsibilities of a government party, the voters just might change their minds.