[Opinion] The Eyes of the Constitution

As if we wanted to shake off the painful past twenty centuries, we have experienced the reality as a community by recognizing and surprising ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century through the event called the World Cup Series. We have raised our pride as highly organized and orderly Koreans, and we are changing in a manner that can be considered revolutionary through talks about economic top 4 and cultural top 4. From the culture of enforcement and suppression, we are changing into a pleasure culture based on voluntary participation.

On the other hand, our local elections ended on half terms under the excitement of the World Cup Series and various "-gate" investigations seemed to disappear into the background as well. The political sphere is only concentrating on how to use the national excitement of the World Cup series to their advantages without any progress in discussing the human rights violations of the under-privileged and the minorities. Especially, they are throwing out comments on constitutional amendments about the two-term presidential system and congressmen cabinet system without any fundamental discussion on how to prevent the president`s family and relatives` corruptions. If either of these systems were adopted, does this mean that the so-called lame duck and corruption of power will disappear? Or does it mean that we can cover up the corruption by eliminating the lame duck?

The important matter is not in the system of the government itself, but how to implement the system. Then we should consider how to effectively implement the system instead of fixing the system itself. Don`t we already have a history of maintaining a uniquely Korean one-term presidential system?

Our presidential system is well described in the term "Despotic Presidency", which also encompasses the possibility that the president`s authority may be carried out in the manner of a despot from the standpoint of this "elected-despot". Yet the fact that the first country that implemented the presidential system, the U.S., has succeeded when other countries failed, is considered to be based on the effective functioning of the political and legal limit system. The main point of political power is the two territories of personnel and finance. The reality of power division is also based on separation and independence of these two territories. How about our presidential authority? Our presidential authority of appointing personnel is far greater than that of the United States president. This is because article 78 of the Constitution stipulates, "the president shall appoint public officials according to the Constitution and the laws", and thus the presidential personnel appointment power is almost almighty with a few exceptions stipulated in the Constitution. Since there are over thousands of positions that the president can appoint, his authority is not much different from that of a authoritarian despot. Not only the heads of the governmental agencies, but also the heads of the public corporations are appointed by the president at his will according to the laws. This is the reason why the so-called "parachute appointment" is so prevalent. In the case of the United States, each state government individually appoints their officials and the federal government is limited by the Congress in appointing major officials and lower officials. Additionally, the president`s appointing power is limited based on the precedent of the Federal Supreme Court that acknowledges the professional independent regulation commission.

Most of the corruption in our country stems from the presidential appointment power. The president`s appointment power is necessary for his policy decision-making and execution, but there is a possibility that the appointment power may be abused. The corruption starts from the non-official power group surrounding the president who may use the president`s final decision-making power regarding appointments to the heads of each official department who also have final policy making decisions. It is difficult to expect a high-ranking government official to resist against the president and his surrounding power group. If it is difficult to prevent corruption through individual power, there should be a system device.

What is the proper method to prevent the presidential authority including his appointment power? It is possible to discuss this with the current Constitution without amending it. It is possible to restrict the president`s authority without violating constitutional regulations.

The political sphere should no longer concentrate on the presidential election as a device to hold onto power, but should actively seek out and implement methods to limit the president`s authority. Our political system should change and improve as our citizens have, as we have witnessed through the World Cup Series.