Redistricting amounts to gerrymandering

Lawmakers have continued to invite the wrath of the public as their terms approach their end with parliamentary elections set for April 11. This time, they have also betrayed the people by increasing the number of National Assembly seats by one to 300 on Monday.

Adding one more seat may appear to be trivial, but it amounts to gerrymandering as both ruling and opposition legislators used restricting to their own partisan interests. One seat will be removed in South Gyeongsang Province, the power base of the governing Saenuri Party; and the other one in South Jeolla Province where the minority Democratic United Party (DUP) is dominant.

The reduction was designed to help the rival parties maintain their vested interests on each other’s turf. But they have decided to create three electoral districts in Paju, Gyeonggi Province; Wonju, Gangwon Province; and Sejong City, a new administrative town.

The redistricting runs counter to growing public calls for fewer seats. Even President Lee Myung-bak has shown a negative reaction. It is regrettable that the legislators have turned a deaf ear to the voices of the people who want to see a slimmer, not fatter, parliament.

Voters are already fed up with the unproductive Assembly as it has done a poor job of representing constituents. Lawmakers have put their partisan interests before public or national ones. They have not hesitated using violence at the Assembly in dog-eat-dog partisan struggles.

It is a shame that legislators have been unable to compromise on thorny issues in many cases. They have turned the hall of parliamentary democracy into an arena of confrontation and conflict. They have been mired in factional strife, corruption and incompetence.
But lawmakers are in cahoots with each other only when increasing their pay or other benefits. They are second to none in creating negative images about politics. They are often called betrayers of democracy. They don’t care what people think about them. It is a pity that they have become the object of public derision, contempt and resentment.

By raising the number of Assembly seats, lawmakers have discredited themselves further. One cannot but think that more seats could bring more strife and violence to the Assembly. It also costs more of taxpayers’ money for the do-nothing parliament. Lawmaker’s performances are not worth the cost.

Few can deny that the country has too many Assembly seats compared to other countries. Each legislator represents an average 160,000 residents in Korea, compared with 260,000 in Japan and 700,000 in the United States. This demonstrates that fewer seats are better. It’s time to form an independent commission to slash the number of seats. This could be the first step to a better performing parliament and much-needed political reform.