Sound opposition needed

How will Korean society reinstate a sound and efficient opposition party? One is bound to have deep concerns when we view the so-called rehabilitation work of the United New Democratic Party.
It is the duty of any accountable member of society to ponder how to operate on this party and, if surgical operation is impossible, how to build a new opposition party.
It is a must to have a sound opposition to check and balance the mammoth power of President-elect Lee Myung-bak and the Grand National Party.
Despite witnessing the resentment of voters toward them, the UNDP is still unable to read the situation.
Some party members call themselves the rightful heirs of the democratic reform power, while praising the person who betrayed the GNP to come to the UNDP as their Joan of Arc.
Meanwhile, one who has a history of being legally sanctioned for illegal political funding claims he is the right man to take over the party. The other man who moved from the GNP to the ruling Uri Party left it while it was in the midst of a crisis.
Few people who ran the Roh administration have assumed responsibility for losing the presidential election so lopsidedly.
Only National Assemblyman Kim Han-gill, former floor leader of the Uri Party, announced his retirement from politics.
All others look forward to April without any excuse, including the former party leader, who said before the presidential election that the entire nation seemed demented; the former minister of justice, who tried to protect a pro-North Korean fellow who broke national security law; and the former prime minister, who sided with rabble-rousers who battered soldiers.
The UNDP must change.
It needs an infusion of fresh blood.
But that new blood should not be imbued with orthodoxy or populism, two of the vices in the fight for democracy.
The newly transfused blood should account for the other wing of the state in order to maintain the value of community.
Korean society has a pool of people willing to provide that fresh blood.
Those who belong to the old school, the old blood, are obliged to leave the party.
The UNDP is holding its central committee meeting today.
Their primary concern should be their reason for existence, although the establishment of new leadership is certainly important.