[Editorial] Bipartisan Politics Got Nowhere

It is lamentable for the public to see the National Assembly drifting for the second consecutive day since the inauguration of the new government. Although the new government is launched, it has been in a bizarre situation in which the new government has a president but does not have the cabinet members. In spite of such an extraordinary situation in the Assembly, it is pathetic fact lawmakers from the ruling and the opposition parties are yelling at and accused each other.

The current situation is similar to that of five years ago. At that time, state affairs were disrupted by the one-week delay on the appointment of the cabinet members because the ruling and the opposition parties were wrangling over the approval of president`s appointment of Prime Minister in accordance with their party lines. It is shameful to acknowledge the fact the level of Korean politics falls short of the standard, when the public is witnessing the drifting National Assembly, which failed to fill the cabinet posts in time. Suppose government officials have to visit Prime Minister of the outgoing government to get a signature on government documents. It is hard to understand the situation where previous government`s officials sign and execute administration policies of the new government.

Blame for the development of the current situation should be placed both on the ruling and opposition parties. It has been believed that the public demanded a through investigation into the secret cash payment to North Korea by the Hyundai Group and to that end, the best way of handling the suspicious scandal is to appoint an independent counsel. Against this backdrop, however, the ruling party insisted the bill for the approval of the appointment of Prime Minister be put to a vote before the bill calling for the appointment of an independent counsel. Finally, the opposition parties came to unilaterally pass the bill for an independent counsel. The ruling party seems to have feared only the bill calling for the appointment of independent counsel might pass through the Assembly, but the approval bill failed to pass and also the opposition parties seems to have thought just the opposite. However, it is hard to avoid criticisms that the ruling and opposition parties derailed state affaires because of their lack of negotiation capabilities, and their action in line with party lines.

It is careless for the ruling Millennium Democratic Party to fail to attend at a vote for the bill for an independent counsel. Because of such a careless move by the ruling MDP, the bill for the approval of the president`s nominee for the prime minister post hit a snag in the parliament. Despite of a promise by the opposition party that if the independent counsel bill is passed, the opposition party will support the passage of the bill of the approval of Prime Minister, the ruling party failed to attend at the Assembly for a vote. When witnessing the current situation, ordinary Koreans cannot help believing that the MDP had an ill intention of passing the responsibility for the disruption of state affairs to the opposition party.

Since the presidential election, the ruling and opposition parties are expressing the importance of bipartisan politics with one voice. Although President Roh Moo-hyun in his inaugural speech emphasized, “A political culture in which problems are solved through dialogue and compromise should take its root in Korea,” the situation in the National Assembly headed into the opposite direction right after the president delivered the speech. Koreans are again experiencing the disillusionment of politics at the moment when the government was newly launched.