After 3 1/2 years in office, President Park Geun-hye is still often faced by considerable disapproval over her rigid way of speech, but then again, eloquence may be the least of the numerous qualifications required of a state leader.

It is, in fact, the integrity of the embedded message that essentially matters, as does the accuracy of the stated facts -- both values the president appears to have failed to embrace on a number of occasions.

Most recently at the heart of public contention was Park’s Aug. 15 Liberation Day address, marking South Korea’s 71st anniversary of independence from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule.

Content aside, the speech was primarily criticized for two reasons -- one was her erroneous statement of a major historical event and the other a purported denial of the legitimacy of the independence movement.

“Today is a historical day, marking the 71st anniversary of National Liberation Day as well as the 68th year of the nation’s foundation day,” was how Park started off her address.

This was a reiteration from last year’s corresponding address which contained the exact same sentence, only with one added to the respective figures.

The opposition’s claim is that referring to Aug. 15, 1948, as the birth of modern South Korea stands at odds with the Constitutional Law, which states that the nation found its roots in the March 1 Independence Movement in 1919.

The partisan feud peaked when Moon Jae-in, former chairman and top-ranking presidential hopeful of The Minjoo Party of Korea, denounced the president’s comment as “ahistorical, unconstitutional and silly.”

The ruling Saenuri Party immediately shot back that the official establishment of the Republic of Korea was in 1948 and that the opposition was trying to politicize the issue as they have no intention to disregard the de facto government.

It was amid such quarrelling that the president publicly lost face to a senior independence fighter who blamed her for distorting history and undermining the independence uprising against Japan during a presidential luncheon.

“(The claim to designate Aug. 15, 1948, as foundation day) not only counters the Constitution but also dismisses our history,’ Kim Young-kwan, a 92-year-old former independence fighter, calmly but resolutely told the president.

The outspoken remark made last Friday as part of his thank you speech for the event, neither received a relevant response from whom it addressed, nor discouraged her from making the disputed address three days later.

Her stance hence triggered backlash, as well as suspicions that by brushing aside the independence movement, she was trying to defend her father, late President Park Chung-hee, who had largely been pro-Japanese.

The fact that Park did not mention a word about the wartime sex slaves during the ceremony commemorating Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule added to such speculations.

In addition, the president came under fire once more for wrongly stating, during the same disputed address, that renowned independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun died in Harbin, instead of Lushun Prison where he passed away later in 1910 after assassinating a ranking Japanese official.

Her denouncement of the “self-deprecating” generation -- most likely referring to the youth -- and emphasis on the “can-do” spirit may have been well-received by older supporters but was heavily criticized and even parodied by others.

Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Jung Youn-kuk may have a point in arguing that the president’s words should not be stretched beyond their literal meaning.

But what the presidential office should also remember is that those precise words have been delivered by the state leader, whose authority has been bestowed by the Constitution and whose responsibility is to suggest a vision to the nation.

Liberation Day is the only one of five national holidays on which the president delivers a congratulatory address.

On this occasion, it should not be farfetched for people to hope that they receive a message of inspiration, pride and unity from the Blue House rather than one loaded with political motive, division and errors.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)