Open the National Assembly

A law on advancing the Korean parliament will take effect with the opening of the 19th National Assembly. The law seeks to develop the legislature by promoting communication and compromise. The National Assembly failed to open Tuesday as specified in Clause 3, Article 5 of the National Assembly Advancement Law, however. This is a repeat of a bad habit that has continued since the 13th National Assembly, rendering the law useless.

Conflict between the ruling and opposition parties over the allocation of 18 standing committee chairmen is the main culprit that parliament has not opened. The opening of a session to elect the parliamentary speaker and vice speaker is separate from that for allocating standing committee chairmen. The ruling and opposition parties have appointed candidates for speaker and vice speaker. Despite this, the main opposition Democratic United Party is refusing to open parliament on the grounds that negotiations on the matter have yet to be finished. The opposition party previously took hostage bills on helping the people’s livelihood to prevent the passage of bills on controversial issues, and is delaying the opening of the legislature to grab more chairman posts. If such a bad practice does not stop, enactment of parliamentary laws will not bring about legislative advancement.

The ruling Saenuri Party wants one of its lawmakers to head the National Assembly`s Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which was occupied by opposition parties in the 17th and 18th parliaments. Saenuri seeks to secure the committee, the final gateway to legislation, as revision of the National Assembly Law has removed the speaker’s authority to introduce bills. For its part, the Democratic United Party does not want to give up the committee and seeks one of its own to head the parliamentary committee for culture, sports, tourism, broadcasting and communications; the committee for land, transport and maritime affairs; or the committee for national policy. This is to manage media outlets to its advantage and highlight issues like strikes at broadcast networks, the four-river restoration project, and illegal surveillance of civilians. This is clearly a scheme by the main opposition party to prepare for the December presidential election.

On the first day of the 19th National Assembly’s term Wednesday, the ruling party submitted 12 bills including one to remove discrimination against temporary workers. Its main opposition rival submitted 19 bills, including one to halve college tuition. Putting the deliberation of such bills on the back burner is tantamount to declaring that a party`s interests are more important than the people’s livelihood. The national economy is suffering from unfavorable internal and external conditions due to the European fiscal crisis. The National Assembly should take care of the people’s livelihood and take the lead in keeping growth engines running at this critical juncture. The ruling and opposition parties must open the National Assembly first and resume their disputes later.