The hundredth day of a baby used to be a special celebration up to the 1960s because of the high infant mortality. Advances in medical science and the standard of living here have enabled most parents to skip this time-old tradition. Watching the barely breathing newborn government of President Lee Myung-bak, which reaches its 100th day tomorrow, however, one can't help but think the nation's politics have progressed little from half a century ago.
Despite repeated appeals and assurances by the Lee administration, candlelit vigils protesting against U.S. beef imports show no signs of going away and are in fact spreading. The government has no one to blame but itself for the growing popular anger and distrust caused by the ``unequal'' trade deal and poor handling of its aftermath.
As many, including this page, have pointed out, however, the mad cow disease scare is not the only ― or even the biggest ― reason for the ongoing rallies that increasingly smack of civil disobedience. If the rush and hurried trade negotiations were the fuse, the stick of dynamite attached to it was the latent sense of disgruntlement the majority of people felt regarding the economy amid this breathless globalization led by neo-liberalistic capitalism. Makeshift remedies and the reckless remarks of officials, from the President on down, have only added to this discontent.
In short, the nation has produced too many dropouts of globalization in the course of overcoming the 1998-98 financial crisis. The size of the non-regular workforce here has topped 5.7 million, with most not covered by social security nets. Students have to digest 20-hour-a-day cramming to avoid falling into the lowest capitalistic caste. That the unemployed and part-time workers constitute the mainstay of demonstrators in the candlelit vigils initiated by young students testify to this. Unless the government takes extra care of these outcasts of globalization, it may face similar outbreaks throughout its tenure.
The street politics, or the people's direct confrontation with the ruling elite, is due in part to the lack of party politics true to its name in this country. The legislature hardly performs its supposed duty of checking the executive branch; instead the ruling party always sides with the government while opposition parties oppose almost everything the government does. This time, too, the governing Grand National Party is just defending the administration, while opposition parties are joining the demonstrators.
What they should do is to bring all issues to the National Assembly and discuss reasonable countermeasures and compromises. If the beef deal is problematic, the legislative branch, both governing and opposition camps, should use their wisdom to issue a resolution and/or enact supplementary laws and regulations instead of being mired in consumptive partisan brawls which lead to nothing.
President Lee ought to provide a breakthrough such as by holding a top party leaders' meeting as well as having direct dialogue and debates with representatives from various social walks of life.
A drastic personnel reshuffle of Cheong Wa Dae and the Cabinet would also be of help by replacing those officials with dubious moral credentials and administrative capacity. He needs not even wait until the opening session of the 18th parliament; the sooner the better.
After the President does what he should do, opposition parties should return to the Assembly and the people ought to watch how the politicians fix this problem.
Like it or not, the people of this country voted for this government. A new government cannot of course be compared to a baby ― a baby is much cuter ― but even if the comparison could be made, which parent could ask for another after just 100 days?