Chapter 31 Keep your faith even if you are excluded

After being elected as vice president, my top priority is political reform and party reform.The rise and fall of all countries in history are determined by politics. The development of a country and the well-being of its citizens are all related to whether politics has played its due role.What happened in our country was that politics didn't work as it should, and that was at the heart of the national crisis. During the two years since entering politics, I have roughly grasped the problems of our country's politics.I discovered that it was not a human problem, but a political system problem, and the party was at the heart of this faulty system.

Politics in our country is party politics, regardless of whether it is the ruling party or the opposition party. The president of the party alone has all the decision-making power within the party, including the right to recommend. This is an outdated party system.So no matter how smart a person is, as long as he joins a political party, he has to wait in line, not to see the face of the people, but the face of the party president who has the right to recommend. in a secondary position.This is the problem with our party system and our political culture. I have come to the conclusion that this wrong party system and political culture must be corrected in order to restore our country's politics.Party reform can be described as the core of political reform, so although people often say that it has caused chaos in the party, or even been excluded, I have always firmly believed that the party must be reformed.Because of this, I was labeled as "non-mainstream".

When I first officially entered politics, things often happened that went against my beliefs.For example, I did not go to the Masan rally in January 1999 and the Pusan ​​and Daegu rallies in September 2000 held by the Grand National Party. Immediately, the criticism from the party rained down. The off-site rally of the Grand National Party was originally started by the fault of the ruling party, but it turned into a long-term rally, and various side effects occurred at the same time.In the beginning, I often went on stage to criticize the ruling party, but I think that since the people already know the situation, it is time to stop the off-court struggle and return to the Congress.Instead of being on the sidelines, it is better to fight against the ruling party at the congress venue. This will make it easier for the people to feel at ease and gain the support of the people.Many members of Congress agree with me in private but are reluctant to mention it in public.From the perspective of our country's political culture, it is because if they speak out, it will be very detrimental to them in the end.

For the sake of the party's democratization and transparency, I have put forward many propositions, but my propositions are like "echoes in the wilderness", and I have said it again and again without any change.I was very depressed, what should I do to change the party?After some hard thinking, I decided to run for the party representative.During the election process, party members can learn more about party reforms, which in turn can lead to substantial changes. However, an unexpected change happened.After losing popular support due to corruption and related incidents, the ruling party now has to carry out party reforms.The ruling party not only decided to abolish the presidential system, but also introduced an improved public nomination system, and introduced a system of national participation in elections for presidential candidates, which could be regarded as epoch-making proposals at the time.

I also mentioned many plans to improve the political party before, but I did not expect the ruling party to publish similar content first.Although I am very surprised by the ruling party's move, on the other hand, I have hope in my heart: if the opposition party and the ruling party are fighting each other to reform the political party, then the reform that was originally expected to be difficult to promote may be more difficult than imagined. Come soon.

The ruling party is like this, the opposition party should have at least one more reform than the ruling party, right?Therefore, I propose to abolish the presidential system before the presidential election, separate party power from general election rights, use an improved public recommendation system to reform the previous public recommendation system, and make the financial operations of political parties transparent, and introduce national participation in presidential election candidates Election system.Among them, the core part is the abolition of the president system, public recommendation, and financial transparency.The system of national participation in elections has been generalized now, but there were still many people who questioned it at the time. They believed that the party's presidential candidate should be selected by party members without the participation of ordinary citizens.

In response to my proposition, the party leadership began to say, "The presidential election is coming, and it is best not to change the party, so it is not possible", "For the sake of regime change, the party must be united now", etc.He also said that although it is acceptable for citizens to participate in 50% of the presidential elections, it is not feasible to abolish the presidential system and introduce a group guidance system before the presidential election. I cannot accept such a statement.The imperial-style presidential system should be abolished, this is the core.The most important issue of political party reform is actually said to be done in the future, and the focus of the discussion is still on "how to formulate the rules for the election of presidential candidates", "how to determine the electoral list for national participation, and how to adjust the ratio". Makes me feel sorry and depressed.

Afterwards, the Grand National Party held a central committee meeting on February 27, 2002, to finalize amendments to the party constitution related to changes in the presidential candidate election method and the party’s leadership system, but ultimately rejected the abolition of the presidential system and the division of presidential candidates Proposal of man and president. In the end I decided to quit the party.After the Central Committee rejected my proposition, it immediately expressed its position on the next day, that is, on February 28: "If you can't see the change of the political party, if you still expect the support of the people, it is tantamount to deceiving the people, so I It must be done.” Then he withdrew from the Grand National Party.

For me, who has always advocated party reform, quitting the party was a choice I had to make.