Livelihood Issues on the Back Burner

As the confusion over the mass exodus of ruling Uri Party members continues, signs of a possible stalemate in policy consultation between the ruling party and the government are looming. Thus, there are mounting concerns that the fuss over mapping out a new political landscape will put livelihood issues on the back burner by delaying the passage of livelihood-related bills heaping up in the National Assembly.

In fact, while the government and Uri Party are expected to hold a high-ranking party-government meeting to discuss shortening the length of the current military service period on February 5, quorum is unlikely because although it is usual that from the ruling party, chairperson, floor leader, and chair of the policy committee and the chair of the policy coordination committee in question are supposed to participate in the meeting, recently committee activities have almost been stalled due to the complex situation surrounding the ruling party.

Making things worse, Kang Bong-gyun, former chair of the policy committee, finished his tenure last month and indicated he would defect this week. Lee Geun-sik, the chair of the second policy coordination committee, said on Sunday that he hadn’t received any guidelines on the operation of the committee and he wouldn’t take part in it.

Amid the chaos, however, there are a lot of pending bills that could have a significant influence on business activities and livelihood on the extra session of the National Assembly starting from Monday. However, for the ruling party to focus its energy on an extra session is actually unlikely given a looming mass defection of its members and the party convention scheduled on February 14.

Therefore, many wonder if the pending livelihood-concerning bills will be discussed enough and pass the National Assembly. Those bills include a government-sponsored real estate measure announced on January 11 aimed at mandatory disclosure of apartment construction cost of private building sites, a revision to the anti-trust law designed to reduce the number of companies subject to the cap on subsidiary investment, which has been under attack for restricting business investment, a tourism promotion bill to invigorate the service industry, and a revision of the national pension law in order to boost the solvency of the pension system.

The paralysis of the policy function of Uri Party, however, cannot be dismissed as a temporary one that resulting from the revision of the party rule, which dictates a new chair to be elected on February 14 shall appoint the new policy committee head.

When the expanded party-government meeting to discuss measure for price stability in time for the lunar New Year holidays met on January 26, only four ruling party members showed up for the meeting on time, while the government sent Deputy Prime Minister to Economy Kwon O-kyu, ministers and vice ministers from other nine ministries, and the head of Fair Trade Commission.

Despite this, President Roh Moo-hyun is proposing grand-scale agenda, including the reduction of the military service period or a second project for balanced national development, while being preoccupied with political issues like a constitutional amendment, fueling the political confusion.

Concerning this, political science professor Lee Jeong-hee of the Hankuk Univeristy of Foreign Studies criticized politicians for prioritizing their personal interests before people’s livelihoods.

Economics professor Kang Seok-hun of Sungshin University pointed out that split of the Uri Party cannot but raise uncertainty over the economy and under these circumstances, the main opposition Grand National Party should show a responsible attitude toward bills that can have an overall effect on the economy and livelihood.

Managing director Kim Hee-sun of Real Estate 114, a real estate site, said that if law revisions are not pushed ahead due to the breakup of the ruling party, the consistency of real estate policies will be greatly damaged, and people who are postponing buying homes out of trust in government measures will be anxious and confused over their purchase plans.

yongari@donga.com sanjuck@donga.com