[Opinion] Lobbyism

Many people think that the lobbyism has a negative image. It produces immoral illegal dealing of a bribe. I heard this word frequently before, but now I feel that the lobbyism is more common. Through ‘cloth lobby’ which arrests the leader of assessing agency for the first time, there was social unrest everywhere. Also, there was a suspicion of lobby of venture businessman. The minister of National Defense sent and received a letter from Korean female lobbyist of one US company. This news made us shamed.

▷The origin of ‘Lobby’ is generally accepted as the lobby of the National Assembly. Originally, he word of lobby comes from that persons concern waited to meet Assemblyman in the lobby of the House of Common in Britain. But, in USA, some are of the opinion that the bill was discussed in a hotel lobby near White House. Anyway, the lobby refers to the activities which collect information or contact with parties concern for the purpose of influencing on a lawmaking or policy. In USA or Britain, people don’t have the negative image of lobby. The lobby must be transparent and be opened to the public. Accordingly, the lobby activities disclosure law or foreign lobbyist registration law which discloses and registers the lobby activities and income regularly was established.

▷the center of US politics and international politics and diplomacy, Washington is the base of lobbyist. There are 100000 lobbyists who have the various works and graduates in Washington. Some lobbyists work for the certain country or nation and other lobbyists work for interest groups such as financial institution, tobacco companies and gun manufacturers. Traditionally, Israel and Taiwan is strong in the lobby. Sometimes, the beautiful and talent woman appears as the lobbyist and so becomes a topic of Washington government.

▷A success or failure of lobby depends on how to expose the own existence. The inordinate lobby brings about an opposite effect. There is a counter opinion for inordinate lobby in USA. In addition, some people insist that the lobbyist or lobby agency twists the National Assembly and the Administration. The lobby activities have not been prevented and interrupted. There is the opinion that the lobby is one of basic right. Maybe it means that the administration and National Assembly has made a mistake. Because of the lobby problem of multinational pharmaceutical firms, the whole country is in turmoil. It is because the US government that the pharmaceutical firm lobbied against the decrease of medicine price, gave pressure to Korean government. And so the minister of health and welfare was replaced. Who can be blamed between US government and Korean government.

parkyk@donga.com