[Editorial] Giving up on the Constitutional Revision without Conditions

Yesterday, floor leaders from six political parties agreed to discuss a revision of the Constitution in the 18th National Assembly and requested President Roh Moo-hyun to hold off introducing his revision proposal. The leaders also agreed to conclude the issues of revising the National Pension Law, Private School law and enacting the Law School Law by the end of this month. As a result, the people are seeing the possibility of productive political action for the first time in a long time.

Cheong Wa Dae, for its part, has shown its willingness to talk after it decided to delay the State Council vote, which was scheduled for April 17. It seems as if Cheong Wa Dae is seeking a way to retreat. In fact, the agreement of Uri Party, which has been the ruling party just some forty days before, to defer the revision of the Constitution, is interpreted as a move to give the President an excuse to retreat.

After mentioning the revision of the Constitution in early January, the president said in early March that he would not make the proposal if all parties and candidates for the presidential election promised to consider the issue in the next administration. Now that the floor leaders have agreed to defer the issue of constitutional revision, the president has a reason not to introduce the proposal.

The right answer, for now, is for the president to accept the request without any conditions. That is the best way for himself, the people, and the stability of the political situation. Should he choose to lay out conditions, however, it would be a blow against parliamentary democracy.

There are eight months before the 17th presidential election. The president’s insistence on a constitutional revision would be pure waste of time. There are much more urgent issues ahead of us, such as following measures for the settlement of the Korea-U.S. FTA, finding a solution for the snowballing deficit of the national pension scheme, and government employee pension issues. Prospects for the North Korean nuclear issue are still unclear as well.

Should the president accept the consensus of the political circle, the people would praise him for his leadership and applaud him for the leadership he showed in the FTA negotiations. The people crave a productive president.