It is literally chaos in the party. The New Politics Alliance for Democracy, which is the major opposition party holding 130 seats in the National Assembly, has displayed such confusion that it's embarrassing to call it a "political party." Park Young-sun, chairman of the party's emergency committee as well as the floor leader showed her lack of leadership in the two failed negotiations on a special legislation concerning the ferry accident and in the process of recruiting her successor as chairman of the emergency committee. As if it was not enough for her to play the wrong card twice by agreeing to a special bill without any basic agreement with the victims' families, she eventually crashed trying to recruit a new chairman of the party’s emergency committee based on an arbitrary decision which would obviously raise questions on the identity of the party. As for the responsibility for the "bad results," the party is also exhibiting conflicts between the "impeachment of Park Young-sun" and Park's "willingness to leave the party” to support her decision.

Park is primarily responsible for letting the situation come to this point. Park dealt a fatal blow to the party as well as to her leadership by agreeing to a special bill on the ferry accident twice--agreements which she later had to retract--and by trying to recruit Lee Sang-don as her successor as chairman of the emergency committee. At the time of the negotiations on the special bill, she failed to collect the opinions from within the party and she failed to connect and communicate with the victims' families. In the process of recruiting her successor, she tried to push ahead with her plans by engaging in "private discussions" with the bosses of some factions, while neglecting the views from within the party. This was the result of forgetting how the credibility of the party crashed after they had to retract agreements on the special bill which Park promoted twice. Park's leadership has taken a fatal blow, and as the chairman of the party's emergency committee, she has also lost the power to lead the party and drive innovation. Whether they separate the chairman of the emergency committee with the floor leader or select a new floor leader to also chair the emergency committee or whether they hold an early convention, resolving the issue of the party's leadership is no longer an option, but a requirement. Unless the leadership of the major opposition party is rebuilt, we cannot expect negotiations on the special bill concerning the ferry accident--an issue we can no longer put off--or restored operations at the National Assembly.

The serious question is whether determining Park Young-sun's position can resolve the chaos within the New Politics Alliance for Democracy. The actions which a presidential candidate and senior party members have shown during this incident have been utterly irresponsible. Lawmaker Moon Jae-in eagerly agreed to the choice of Lee Sang-don as the chairman of the emergency committee, but when the decision stirred controversy, he just sat back and watched, only to say belatedly, "I am sorry that the plan was canceled." Other senior members calculated their factional interests and the pros and cons concerning the next party leadership and were busy criticizing the leadership.

Reportedly, Park also said she would step down, so her resignation is only a matter of time. The party's emergency committee, which the party established claiming they would rebuild the party into one that the people could trust and one that could represent the people after their defeat in the July 30 by-elections, turned out to be a failure, and now we can't even imagine how far the New Politics Alliance for Democracy will fall. It is truly depressing for the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, which is even losing its meaning as an opposition party, seems to be calling for the collapse of "party politics."