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What a couple — and a party — indeed

Published: 19 Oct. 2023, 20:14

Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung once said that a court’s rejection of an arrest warrant does not mean an acquittal of a suspect of criminal charges. Just as he said, confirming his own criminal charges is only delayed until the final ruling. Nevertheless, the DP acts as if it is convinced of its leader’s innocence regarding a plethora of suspicions and charges against him. The majority party vehemently attacks anyone if they raise judicial issues of its own boss.

Appearing in a legislative audit of the Gyeonggi provincial government on Tuesday, Gov. Kim Dong-yeon said that he had asked the police to look into the suspicion that Lee’s wife used her husband’s corporate credit card for personal use up to 100 times while he was serving as Gyeonggi governor. Kim succeeded Lee’s post last year. The current governor most likely had to expose the illegal use of the credit card because of the frequent abuse of the card by the wife of his predecessor.

That’s not all. The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission also requested the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office investigate the case after it was convinced of Lee’s connivance in the habitual misuse of his own card by his wife. In a dramatic turn of events, a former Gyeonggi official held a press conference on Wednesday to disclose his identity, after revealing the illegitimate card usage for the first time. “What Governor Lee and his wife did was clearly a criminal act,” he said at the conference. Why would he disclose the tainted past of the two if he does not have sufficient evidence to prove the truth?

What is truly dumbfounding is the DP’s reaction. The party agreed to allowing the official to appear at the audit session, and then backtracked. The hard-core Lee supporters are fiercely criticizing the current governor for behaving like a betrayer. Would such a thing happen if the former governor was really innocent? Rep. Kim Eui-kyeom, a hardline DP lawmaker, went so far as to brush off the card abuse. I seriously wonder if the liberal party has any sense of morality.

The misuse of a corporate credit card by the wife of the former governor cannot be brushed off. She repeatedly ordered another official to instruct the whistleblower to buy a sandwich, sushi and expensive beef on her behalf, according to the lower official who held the press conference.

The mid-level official who repeatedly gave the instruction to the whistleblower was already convicted of criminal charges at her first trial in August. After both the provincial government and the anti-graft commission requested an investigation of the farce, the prosecution and the police must find the truth fast. The time has come for the strange couple to tell the truth.