Top priority should be on people, not presidency

Members of the 19th National Assembly formally take office today. Yet few can say for sure when the 300 lawmakers, including about 140 newly elected representatives, will be able to hold the opening session. If the preceding Assembly is any guide, it could take up to three months for rival parties to agree on a parliamentary formation.

They should never repeat a tedious, unproductive tug-of-war over Assembly speakership and chairmanship of standing committees, and finish these processes in seven and three days respectively, as stipulated by National Assembly Law.

The legislative branch has too much to do for the economy and needs to quickly address matters in the field of diplomacy to become mired in petty partisan rivalry over parliamentary hegemony. Just think of the 18th Assembly, in which the speaker had to leave his job before his tenure ended admitting that he distributed envelopes containing cash to become head of the governing party, and more than a few committee chairmen were little more than pawns of party leaders’ used to ram controversial bills through their panels.

Unfortunately, we have a hunch the new Assembly’s early performance will be as bad as this, if not worse, especially considering the parties’ foremost priorities will be on the presidential election less than seven months away. Past experience shows that a National Assembly that begins business in the run-up to presidential polls does not fulfill its role properly.

This year should be different. The time has long past for the legislature to reject its false status as the maid of the executive branch. The newly enacted law on parliamentary procedures should be its catalyst.

Korean voters hope to see their representatives burn the midnight oil while discussing state affairs, especially those related to people’s livelihoods instead of waging a trench war for partisan interests as they have done in the past.

Awaiting bipartisan cooperation and compromise are the bills on creating new jobs, including how to reduce the number of non-regular workers and improve conditions for the rest; strong anti-corruption laws to prevent influence-peddling scandals involving aides and cronies of the President; and a law that fundamentally blocks attempts of those in power to control and dominate the nation’s media outlets.

The ruling Saenuri Party should actively cooperate in this regard with the opposition’s attempts to hold parliamentary hearings on ongoing strikes by the nation’s public broadcast workers and one on illegal surveillance by government employees on private citizens. Whether the rival parties will be able to turn these national issues from partisan to bipartisan efforts will also determine the nation’s electoral politics, or raise its political efficacy, to a higher level.

Conservative politicians’ attempts to oust two progressive lawmakers-elect from parliament are unlikely to succeed. Still the right-wingers may not have to lose much sleep over the parliament advanced by what they see as Kim Il-sung’s followers. Toadstools prosper in the shadows but dry up under the full glare of daylight.

So let none of these block the opening of the 19th Assembly on schedule. A good beginning is a job half done.