Senior People Power Party Figures Urge Jang Dong-hyuk to Reconsider Heavy Disciplinary Action, Call for Unity Over Purges

[Financial News] After the Central Ethics Committee imposed severe disciplinary action on four lawmakers outside the party leadership, some senior members of the People Power Party pushed back. Five-term lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun urged party leader Jang Dong-hyuk on the 21st to reconsider the punishment, while four-term lawmaker Kim Tae-ho criticized the party, saying, "A party's future cannot be built by one person alone."
On the 21st, Yoon called on social networking service, "Please reconsider this heavy disciplinary action within the bounds of common sense. Please move toward reform that promotes unity within the party and gives the public hope again." He added, "What we need now is not exclusion but unity, and not toughness but inclusion."
Yoon noted that the four disciplined lawmakers were all classified as being outside the party leadership and had directly or indirectly clashed with Jang's leadership while calling for reform and change within the party. He said it was not unreasonable for concerns to emerge inside and outside the party that the latest punishment could mark the start of disciplinary politics aimed at eliminating political rivals.
He went on to say that the leadership should seriously reflect on whether imposing such heavy suspensions of party membership rights all at once at this particular moment is truly in line with public expectations. He asked whether the party was not wasting all its energy on internal conflict, even as issues such as livelihoods, the economy and the ruling party's governance responsibilities continue to pile up like a mountain.
Yoon criticized politics that cater only to hardline supporters, suppress internal diversity and slide into zero-sum politics, warning that even moderate voters and ordinary citizens could turn away. "Then we would have no future left," he said.
Kim Tae-ho also took to social networking service on the 21st and asked Jang, "Who is the People Power Party fighting now?"
Kim said, "Reform is not about eliminating opponents, but about building a party that can move forward together even with those who disagree." He added that once different voices are labeled as wrong and dissent is treated as grounds for punishment and exclusion, a party does not broaden itself toward the public but instead narrows into a specific support base.
He continued, "Heavy disciplinary action may help protect party power. But whether it will make the People Power Party stronger is a completely different question." He said the path the party must choose now is "unity, not purges; public trust, not loyalty contests; and politics as a public party, not a private one."
Five-term lawmaker Kim Gi-hyeon also wrote on social networking service on the 20th, criticizing the leadership by saying, "If party discipline is not built on respected leadership but instead is built with a knife, it can only become a house of cards."
He indirectly criticized Jang Dong-hyuk's disciplinary politics, saying, "We must not simply copy the wrong example of the Lee Jae-myung administration, which is carrying out fear politics by declaring 'arrest first, prosecute first, sentence first.'"
Earlier on the 20th, the party's Ethics Committee voted to suspend the party membership rights of lawmakers Cho Kyoung-tae, Kwon Young-jin, Seo Beom-su and Jin Jong-oh. The committee imposed suspensions of two years and six months on Cho, one year and six months on Kwon, 10 months on Seo, and two years on Jin.
[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter