By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The hearing of the Grand National Party (GNP) Thursday was intense as the panels sought sharp and embarrassing questions over allegations surrounding presidential hopefuls Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.
The unprecedented in-house scrutiny took place amid skepticism running high over the effectiveness of the internal screening.
Fifteen panels focused their questions on the contenders' property trading, tax records and their relationship with people involved in the allegations.
Some panels doggedly requested contenders give appropriate answers to their questions.
Early predictions said that the one-day scrutiny would end with wishy-washy conclusions by providing the contenders with an opportunity to defend their positions.
Skepticism came even from the internal screening body responsible for the hearing.
Ahn Kang-min, chief of the internal watchdog, told reporters that he was frustrated for several reasons.
``The in-house body has no teeth and was not empowered to have the contenders cooperate with our activities. Two contenders were not supportive and failed to fulfill their earlier commitments,'' said Ahn, a former senior prosecutor.
He said two contenders continued to conduct mutually destructive negative campaigns, which ultimately forced the prosecution to investigate the allegations.
As a consequence, the internal committee grew increasingly callous as the prosecution took hold of the investigation.
Amid pervasive skepticism, a political scientist presented a more optimistic view, saying that this kind of effort will pay off in the long run.
Prof. Hahm Sung-deuk of Korea University told The Korea Times that the internal scrutiny is a very good start for party politics. So far the country has no other system to screen candidates running for the presidency.
``Holding a hearing to screen presidential contenders will definitely help bring transparency to the political arena in the future,'' he said.
Hahm added that he shared little with critics who argue that an internal scrutiny is less likely to reach the uncomfortable truth regarding the contenders.
Those critics said panelists would be discouraged from asking questions that might put the contenders in trouble in the presidential race.
``In the U.S., the media screens candidates running for public office. As media in Korea does not play such a role, the party has to do it on its own,'' he said.
``Those who are aspiring to be a national leader will learn lessons from this event. They would figure out that a zero-tolerance policy is applied to those who run for the presidency so they are less likely to seek misdemeanors or wrongdoings even before running for public office,'' the political scientist added.