[Editorial] Turning Parliamentary Discussions into Forum Where President-elect Gathers Public Opinions

President-elect Roh Moo-hyun started a series of tours to the nation`s major provinces to hold parliamentary discussions. The parliamentary forms, which began with the southern city of Daegu yesterday and will last until Feb.12, deserves public attentions on the ground that before the president-elect`s new administration is launched, the president-elect can have opportunities to listen to public opinions on various provincial issues and reflect public opinions in the new government`s policymaking process. Around 100 prominent figures from Daegu attended at the yesterday`s form and tabled their opinions on various issues.

It is true that all the opinions given by those participants at the forum may not be reflected in national polices. However, the more opportunities the new president has of listening to the public, the better it may be. Although the public recommendation on government officials through the Internet is also desirable, it might be better for the president-elect to have more opportunities of having face to face public meetings because a face to face meeting may provide the public with an opportunity to give their opinions easily and frankly. In this context, we expect such a public forum to continue down the road.

It is true that the public have expressed mixed expectations on the president-elect. In particular, many Koreans expressed their concerns over his government takeover team which failed to show a willingness to accommodate any critical opinions from the outside`s camp. At a time when the public concerns are rising, it is desirable for the new administration to make a smooth start by listening to the public opinions directly.

However, the purpose and the benefit of a public forum will be reduced to some extent if a forum is conducted in the pre-arranged format in which questions and answers are already given before a forum. Successive governments` presidents failed to gather genuine public opinions in previous similar forums because of pre-arranged formats including questions and answers. Also, participants attended at those previous forums tried to give compliments on governments` polices not to hurt the then presidents` and government` officials feeling. As a result, the real purpose of the forum got no where, leading to presenting extorted public opinions.

President-elect Roh has to try not to repeat those past mistakes by meeting the public expectation on him as a person who dislikes following formalities and window dressing practices. He should instruct organizers of a public forum to give more people opportunities to participate at such a forum and to express their opinions more freely. It will be worth that the president-elect has more opportunities to listen to the public than to present his own opinions at such a forum. Only when such a free and natural atmosphere is created, the president-elect can hear genuine public opinions through such a good-intentioned forum.