[Opinion] First Time Elected Assemblyman

A certain politician still remembers, when he was first elected as a lawmaker, the advice he received from the five-time elected leading assemblyman who led him into the world of politics. First, a politician should not be greedy over money. Second, never be satisfied with being an assemblyman and be more ambitious. The junior assemblyman, as if he had carried out everything by bearing the advices of his five-time elected senior assemblyman in mind, worked himself up from a three-time elected assemblyman, a minister, a mayor of a megalopolis, and finally into the strong candidate of the opposition party for the next presidential election.

The former U.S. president, John F. Kennedy, who was elected as a representative when he was 29-years-old, was not very interested in his life as a representative when he was first elected. His influence was minor at the House of Representatives because the Republicans dominated it. The first-time elected assemblymen’s offices were allotted the farthest place away from the House of Representatives, called “Freshmen Row.” Looking back upon his past as a first-time elected assemblyman, “I was not a fully prepared assemblyman at that time. When I was elected, there were too many things I was not aware of. I made so many mistakes. I even mistakenly cast a vote,” said Kennedy.

Considering the House of Representatives as a momentum for his future course, Kennedy, steadily preparing himself, succeeded in winning the 1953 Senator election. However, “The most corrupted occupation in the world is senator,” Kennedy acrimoniously criticized, just a year after his inauguration as a senator. The senators were busy inducing the election fund contributors and negotiating over the legislation bills and national budget. Abstaining himself from the corrupted negotiations, Kennedy fostered his dream of becoming a higher level government official than senator. Even his enormously rich father, Joseph Kennedy, helped him and it allowed Kennedy to stand aloof from the temptation of money. Kennedy is a myth of politician’s success who made his dream come true by carefully dealing with money problem.

The 17th National Parliament is consisted of the largest number of first-time elected lawmakers in history, comprising 63 percent. One hundred and nine out of total 152 Open Uri Party lawmakers are first-time elected. They are in high spirits as their number is copious. The first-time elected assemblymen of the leading party even boycotted the address of Parliamentary Speaker Park Kwan-yong at their parliamentary research ceremony. A second-time elected lawmaker who said, “We need a disciplinary leader for the freshmen,” was assaulted by the first-time elected assemblyman who retorted, “If you play around with those words once again, I will bite you off.” I hope that there will be more senior lawmakers who can give the lessons as to the honest career of politicians, and better first-time elected lawmakers who nurture their dream by quietly sinking in the parliamentary-ism. Are the seniors all becoming the target of reformation?

Editorialist Hwang Ho-tack, E-mail; hthwang@donga.com