Political reform should begin with barring split-money contribution

As a voice-recorded file and a memo of the late Chairman Sung Wan-jong of Keangnam Enterprises that said he gave money to eight key figures in the current government were revealed, Rep. Park Soo-hyun of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) disclosed that he received some 5 million Korean won from the late chairman. It turned out, however, that the list of donators who contributed more than 3 million won from 2004 to 2014 revealed by the National Election Commission didn’t include the name of Sung Wan-jong. “I confirmed that the late Chairman Sung contributed the money by using two different names with 2 million and 3 million won, respectively,” explained Rep. Park.

Under the current law, it is prohibited a corporate and an organization from contributing money for political support, which caused them to use an expedient of borrowing someone else’s name such as names of executives or staff members. As the case of Rent-a-Cop Association (Chungmoghoi) shows, most of the cases have strings attached such as lobbying for certain legislation. An individual donator is allowed to give 5 million won to a single lawmaker a year, up to 20 million won in total. Contributing more than 3 million won a year, the giver will be classified as a big-money donator and the name will be open to the public. It is, however, difficult to find out or punish even though the donator write down the name in an insufficient or incorrect way. The names who contribute less than 3 million won a year are not made public. In an effort to protect the identity, corporate companies or organizations use someone else’s name and split the money to be less than 3 million won.

The analysis on the list of big donators conducted by the commission has revealed that nine executives of Keangnam Enterprises sponsored 67.7 million won to six lawmakers. One of them turned out to have used different identities of an advisor, a company worker and a friend from hometown when giving 5 million won to four different lawmakers. Included the cases whose identities are not revealed such as Rep. Park Soo-hyun, it is assumed that there are more lawmakers from ruling and opposition parties who received sponsor money in expedient or illegal manners.

It should not be overlooked even when illegal contribution is a small amount. The arm of the law must be substantially enhanced so that illegal acts can never be committed. It would be desirable to open the details of sponsor money that each lawmaker and political candidate received, big money contributed to each political party and income and expenses of election cost through the Internet in a transparent manner. Political reform will only be feasible when a small but right thing is practiced rather than using empty rhetoric.