During the presidential campaign late last year, both Park Geun-hye and her opposition rival Moon Jae-in pledged to carry out new politics so that the National Assembly wouldn’t be paralyzed again because of endless partisan confrontations.
With only a few days remaining before the new administration is inaugurated, however, the ruling and opposition parties are reenacting old practices over the matter of revising the government reorganization bill, which is needed to implement the President-elect’s election pledges. This time-consuming standoff is quite disappointing and both parties deserve harsh public condemnation.
The Feb. 14 and Feb. 18 deadlines for approving the bill passed without any noticeable movement by both sides and it’s unclear whether it will be dealt with during the plenary session of the National Assembly scheduled for Tuesday. If the parties adhere to their positions without showing any flexibility, it will be all but impossible for the Park administration to be on track for a considerable while. And the resultant confusion in state affairs will be beyond description.
President-elect Park was wrong to announce her full Cabinet lineup Sunday when the Assembly has yet to approve the reorganization bill. It was definitely in violation of the legislature’s lawmaking power and amounted to contempt of parliament by Park.
Currently at issue is Park’s plan to transfer the function of promoting satellite broadcasting, Internet protocol TV and other entertainment cable TV channels from the Korea Communications Commission, the broadcasting and communications regulator, to the newly-created mammoth science ministry. The commission is supposed to keep its present function of reviewing programs of these outlets in addition to its regulatory authority over terrestrial TV broadcasters and four comprehensive programming and two news-only channels.
The main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) argues that broadcasting policy should be handled by an independent consultative body such as the KCC, rather than by a ministry where the minister could determine policies unilaterally, to ensure the independence and fairness of broadcasters.
Given that this matter is not serious enough to hamper the normal launch of the new administration, Park and her ruling party had better accept the opposition’s demand and let the commission keep its function of promoting the broadcasting industry.
The DUP, for its part, needs to respect the will of the people, recalling that it was Park who won the presidential election in December. Also, government reorganization was one of Park’s key campaign promises.
New politics can only begin by making concessions and reaching a middle-ground compromise.