[Editorial] No Returning to Political Disputes

A series of gatherings between President Roh Moo-hyun and the representatives of the four parties has ended. I had hoped that it could have been an opportunity to control the disorder of the current political situations, but I see no such results. The solution, however, has become clearer. It is to publicize all the behind-the-scenes stories of the parties’ funds for the presidential election, to verify them, and to be responsible for them. The people’s judgment will follow. This column has already emphasized that that way was to make a genuine confession.

Choi Byung-ryol, representative from the Grand National Party (GNP), is not in such a situation even though he suggested a comprehensive special investigation. New facts are being revealed about the Choi Don-woong incident. The GNP should publicize the overall story behind the funds of the presidential election before mentioning a special investigation and fully cooperate with the investigation by the Prosecution.

President Roh has said that a special investigation is immediately possible, but the governing party and the opposition party have to agree on adopting a related special law for the investigation to happen. There is no guarantee that the agreement will go well. There is a high possibility that the negotiation will end in the middle of political quarrels just as it did in the past. We should not let this valuable chance of the political fund reform get out of our hands again this way.

The core precondition is the prosecution’s impartial investigation. It should not raise misunderstanding by solely aiming at the opposition party while covering up the governing party’s secrets. The prosecution absolutely made no remark as to whether or not the president was involved in the incident, which is the central part of the suspicion, while announcing the midway investigation results about the Choi Do-sul’s corruption, a close aide of the president. The people do not know whether the investigation on the alleged corruption over the presidential election funds is being exerted on the governing party. Without these doubts unclear, neither the opposition party nor the people will accept the investigation result.

It is, however, fortunate that the gatherings have made a decision to ask in advance whether the assessment referendum is unconstitutional or not. We have pointed out that the assessment referendum is not only unconstitutional, but also not helpful in finding solutions for the current political difficulties. We have to decide on the issue of assessment right away. The people will not accept it if time gets wasted over the political disputes.