PPP's Jang slams Lee over 'selective silence' on key issues

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok, who has been rallying with citizens at Olympic Park over election fraud allegations and calling for a by-election, sharply criticized President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday, saying: "When things are favorable, maximum volume; when unfavorable, mute. If a TV breaks down, you can at least get it repaired — but there's no fixing the defective politics of a broken president."

Jang posted on his Facebook page Tuesday, writing that going silent when cornered was "the defining trait of Lee Jae Myung and this administration."

He also said the president had not answered "the simple question" of whether he played golf while the Navy was searching for a missing soldier. "If a round of golf came before a soldier's life, he should be stripped of his authority as commander in chief," Jang said.

Jang then said the president had yet to offer a proper apology for citizens who were unable to vote due to missing ballots. He added that Lee had insisted on a special prosecutor probe aimed at nullifying his own trial verdicts, while ignoring public demands for a separate special counsel to restore voting rights.

Jang also criticized Lee for taking credit when share prices rose while offering neither an apology nor a plan after a sharp market decline. He said the president had threatened that fixing real estate would be easier than clearing mountain streams, yet had gone silent amid record-breaking housing price surges.

Jang further said Lee had made a public show of announcing plans to sell his Bundang apartment but had since said nothing about whether the sale went through. He also noted that Lee had made a spectacle of sending pizza to police for cracking down on what he called fake news, yet had fallen completely silent over the Jang Yun-gi case.

"Politics is about providing answers," Jang said. "Whatever questions the people ask, a president must do their utmost to answer them."