Chapter 33 unconditional heart

I co-founded the Korea Future United Party with people from non-political circles, but the Korea Future United Party did not gain much support from the people.As the presidential election is approaching, friends around me have been urging me to join hands with candidates Roh Moo-hyun and Chung Mong-joon, but I can’t do that.A political party should be formed with people who share the same philosophy and line. Candidate Roh Moo-hyun has completely different ideas, lines, and views of the country from mine. At the same time, candidate Lee Hoi-chang asked me to cooperate with the Grand National Party for the sake of the country through many people, and I wondered which is the right way.After resigning from the party, I endured so much criticism. What I wanted was to implement a party reform plan that would make our country’s political progress, but just after I quit the party, the Grand National Party 100% accepted my party reform plan.

"What Vice President Park said is already accepted, isn't it? So for the sake of the country, please join forces with the Grand National Party." At that time, considering that the ruling party and I had different ideas and lines, I refused to cooperate with the ruling party.After I expressed my attitude, the ruling party then proceeded to unify the candidates of Roh Moo-hyun and Chung Mong-joon. In this way, it is very likely that the country will be handed over to the ruling party again. For the sake of the country, I am determined to help candidate Li Huichang again.I met with Candidate Lee Hoi-chang and proposed to create a pan-nationalized "Political Reform Committee" with the participation of political circles and private experts, and the political reform plan formulated by this committee must be fully used in the political circle. agreed. On November 19, 2002, the Future United Party of Korea merged with the Grand National Party, which seemed to be a joint party between the two parties, but in fact the Future United Party of Korea unconditionally disbanded and merged with the Grand National Party.

Immediately afterwards, the simplification of candidates between Roh Moo-hyun and Chung Mong-joon of the ruling party was completed.After the simplification, candidate Roh Moo-hyun began to lead candidate Lee Hoi-chang a lot in opinion polls. After merging with the party, I became the chairperson of the Election Strategy Committee for the GNP presidential election, and at the same time, I participated in campaigning for Candidate Lee.Although the weather was cold, I still traveled all over the country to ask for votes, which gradually narrowed the gap with my opponent.At this time, we began to see some hope of winning the election, but the fate once again deviated from the Grand National Party. The result of the counting of votes was that the candidate Lee Hoi-chang received 11,443,297 votes, and the candidate Roh Moo-hyun received 12,014,277 votes. They lost the election by a small margin. .

Candidate Lee Hoi-chang announced his withdrawal from politics the day after the election.Unable to recover from the blow of the defeat, many in the party fell into a state of panic. On December 20, 2002, candidate Lee Hoi-chang's press conference on his withdrawal from politics was very heavy.The press conference began in such an atmosphere. Candidate Lee Hoi-chang said, "My lifelong dream is to build a country that abides by the rule of law and principles, and a society where people's dignity and value are respected. Now I can't realize my dream. I am deeply sorry." Candidate Li Huichang's eyes were flushed, and he was speechless for more than ten seconds.More than 100 party officials who participated in the press conference also took out handkerchiefs to wipe their tears.Seeing this scene on TV broke my heart more than anyone else.It seems that nothing he can say can comfort him. Besides, the Grand National Party will have to go on a rough road full of thorns in the future, which makes people worry about the fate of the Grand National Party.The most important thing now is to get out of the blow as soon as possible and regain the trust of the people as soon as possible.

After President Roh Moo-hyun took office, he began investigating funds for the presidential election.This caused great turmoil to the Grand National Party.Criticism from the people keeps pouring in like a river breaking its embankment, and the Grand National Party seems to be submerged at any moment.