The governing Grand National Party (GNP) took out the contentious
cross-country canal project from its campaign vision for the April 9 National
Assembly, Wednesday. The elimination of one of President Lee Myung-bak's
flagship campaign pledges ahead of the crucial elections invited an attack by
the opposition parties.
The governing party also excluded the plan to reform English education from its
campaign pledges so as not to alienate voters.
Opposition parties hit the GNP for intentional exclusion of the contentious
plans, calling it a ``shortsighted opportunistic move.''
Co-Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP)
made clear his party's firm opposition to the canal project.
``We will fight against the GNP so as not to make the canal project happen,'' he
told a news conference in Seoul.
Despite President Lee's plan to implement the project, there are growing
concerns that building the canal over mountain ranges in some areas could result
in environmental destruction.
Opponents have also raised doubts over the practicality of building a canal on a
peninsular, where most large cities are not far from the sea. In addition, they
question the project's economic effects, insisting that the initiative will
require an astronomical amount of money with low returns.
President Lee, who served as CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, claims
that the inland canal would reduce transportation costs by a third, revive
regional economies, boost tourism and create thousands of jobs.
A group of 46 UDP lawmakers joined the anti-canal move.
Calling the GNP's elimination of the controversial plan ``a deceitful action,''
the lawmakers demanded that the governing party make a choice; either join their
anti-canal campaign or include it in its campaign pledges to help voters judge
their vision.
The 46 legislators also urged the governing party to leave the final decision to
the public by holding a referendum on the waterway project linking Seoul to
Busan after the April elections.
Welcoming the anti-canal movement, the minor Democratic Labor Party (DLP)
suggested that UDP leaders and its lawmakers hold a roundtable meeting to
frustrate the project.
In a separate move, Creative Korea Party (CKP) leader Moon Kook-hyun called a
news conference to politicize the issue.
Moon, who is vying with President Lee's right-hand man, Rep. Lee Jae-oh, in
Eunpyeong, Seoul, has benefited from his staunch opposition to the project.
His support in opinion polls has continued to rise since he made public his
critical view on the project, and the gap between Moon and Rep. Lee has been
widening. Moon is leading the race by a margin of 20 percentage points in the
latest polls.
Other surveys also said more than 60 percent of the public opposed the
construction of the canal.
Rep. Lee suffered as he had been cheerleading the project by launching diverse
awareness programs and making a bicycle tour to the areas which will be
connected by the canal if the plan is implemented.
Comments are moderated to remove those that are inappropiate prior to appearing
on the site.