[Editorial] “50.2 Billion vs. Zero,” Argument over Prosecutorial Fairness

Six lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties have been arrested on charges of collecting illegal campaign funds or individual wrongdoings. Since lawmakers from the Grand National Party (GNP), Choi Don-woong and Park Jae-wook are under investigation, the number of arrestees is likely to increase.

We must highly evaluate the prosecution and the court’s willingness to eradicate the illegal political funds, which is unprecedented in Korea. Despite all this, however, the issue of impartiality remains unsettled.

When we look at the charges against the eight lawmakers, only two of them, Kim Yeong-il and Choi Don-woong from the GNP, are involved in collecting illegal campaign funds during the last presidential election. The others are charged with personal corruption.

On the surface, corrupted lawmakers seem to have been arrested regardless of their parties, but in fact, no lawmakers have been arrested on charges of collecting political funds for the Roh Moo-hyun camp.

Last year, the prosecution revealed that Ahn Hee-jung and Lee Kwang-jae from the Roh camp received about 2.23 billion won from Sun & Moon Group. It also said that no party executives or lawmakers from the Roh camp were involved in illegal funds, and the camp received no money from the five major corporations including Samsung and Hyundai groups. Choi Do-sul received 1.1 billion won from SK after the presidential election.

On the other hand, the GNP’s Lee Hoi-chang camp received 50.2 billion won, the prosecution said. The Grand National Party is arguing that the investigation is unfair, bringing up the money involved, “50.2 billion vs. zero.” Accordingly, it is reasonable that there are arguments over prosecutorial fairness.

The investigation is still on going and the bigger corruption scandals from the Roh camp may come into light in the future. In any circumstances, the prosecution should be impartial. The prosecution should bear in mind that the people’s trust which took so hard to earn can crumble in a moment if it sides with the present power and loses its impartiality.