Three Parties’ Representatives Speech at the National Assembly

Grand National Party (GNP) Deputy President Choi Byong-Ryul, New Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) Supreme Council Member Park Sang-Chun, and United Liberal Democrats (ULD) Secretary General Lee Yang-Hee delivered speeches at the extraordinary session of the National Assembly on 5th.

Deputy President Choi called for President Kim Dae-Jung to resign from the position of the president of MDP and to abandon the three party coalition to overcome the crisis. He said, ``the emperor style governance and populism that aims on winning of the next election has caused current crisis.``

Deputy President Choi also demanded to stop the tax investigation on media, to nullify the plan to revive the newspaper notification system, and to reform the appointment management system including replacement of the Prime Minister. He added, ``If the president does all I just mentioned, opposition parties will help him.``

Supreme Council Member Park said, ``political unrest, which is caused by the fight to take the power, leads to social unrest and instability of the economy. He suggested to have a conference among the heads of each party, to agree on the principle to prevent political fights, and to install a council that can take a countermeasure on economic crisis in the National Assembly.

Park also proposed supra-party measures to cope with the economy by sending an equal number of lawmakers and ministers from related ministries to the council. He added that if needed, the council can be maintained with one year time limit. He continued saying ``the government expects to see our economy revive from the rest half of the year.`` He also commented on the `chaebol policy` saying, ``It needs to give them vitality based on the firm reform principle, but, there will be no retreat to the past.``

Secretary General Lee blamed the government on the North Korean intrusions into South Korean territorial waters by saying, ``Our Navy gave up to protect our sovereignty being overwhelmed by the North Korean cargo vessel’s dignified appearance.`` He continued to argue, ``we should adopt the cabinet responsibility system to prepare for the era of unification and to materialize the true assembly democracy.``

Song In-Soo issong@donga.com