Yoo Si-min: "The 6 Principles of Conservative Grand Unification Are a 'Lie'... The Innovation Committee Cannot Innovate"

Yoo Si-min (60), Chairman of the People’s Life Human Rights Foundation/Photo by YouTube 'Alileo Live' screen capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ga-yeon] Yoo Si-min (60), chairman of the People’s Livelihood Foundation, criticized the Innovation Integration Promotion Committee (IIPC), which the Liberty Korea Party and the New Conservative Party are promoting for conservative integration, saying, "The three principles of conservative reconstruction and the six principles of conservative grand integration are all 'bbung' (lies). They are meaningless."

On the 14th, Yoo said on the foundation’s YouTube broadcast 'Alileo Live,' "The essential condition for grand conservative integration is to share the nomination rights. If that is agreed upon, integration will happen," adding, "I believe integration can be achieved through the IIPC. But innovation cannot."

He raised his voice, saying, "What do they mean by innovation? If innovation were to happen, it would generally involve ideological, policy, personnel, party operation system, and cultural innovations, but looking at what the IIPC has proposed, there is no talk of innovation."

Yoo continued, "For grand integration to be established, each party must be given a share to a degree that satisfies them. If there is a greater cause, integration happens without sharing shares," and said, "In other words, if all factions participating in the grand integration verbally promise to share nomination rights without causing resentment and say they are integrating for the sake of conservative reconstruction without negotiating shares under the pretext of a noble cause, then integration will happen."

He pointed out, "Even when progressive parties integrated in the past, despite differences in the number of lawmakers, they publicly declared an equal integration and equal nomination spirit. So they demanded more nominations, but (the smaller party) had no people."

Yoo Si-min, Chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, is giving a lecture on the theme of 'The Role of the Media and the Role of Citizens' at a special invited lecture held at EXCO in Buk-gu, Daegu on November 16 last year. Photo by Yonhap News

Regarding former Bareunmirae Party talent recruitment committee chairman Ahn Cheol-soo’s statement that he has "no intention to participate in politically engineered integration discussions," Yoo evaluated it as "narrowing his own stride."

Yoo said, "Watching Ahn Cheol-soo’s remarks, I felt 'he really hasn’t changed.' Saying he cannot participate in politically engineered integration discussions is anti-political sentiment," adding, "It’s the same as before. When he appeared, he exploited voters’ anti-political sentiment who were discontent with real politics and parties."

He said, "Politics cannot do without engineering. You cannot build a house without engineering. If Ahn Cheol-soo wants to do proper politics, he should not deny engineering," and pointed out, "But his first statement upon return, saying he cannot participate in politically engineered integration discussions, results in narrowing his own stride."

Yoo viewed the possibility of former chairman Ahn winning the general election as low. He said, "Thinking about the last general election, the party support rate in Seoul then beat the Democratic Party. This time, I think it absolutely won’t happen like then," and claimed, "Originally, Ahn absorbed some moderate supporters and a large portion of the Democratic Party defectors from the Honam region, but this time, I think it’s hard to expect support from Honam."

He added, "At that time, Honam conservatives stirred anti-Moon sentiment, causing a People’s Party surge and attracting some moderate supporters to join, resulting in a big win in the general election. But now, Honam feels quite betrayed," and said, "It’s hard to recover. Rather, I think there will be a fierce battle for third place with the Justice Party, and he won’t even beat the Justice Party."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.