All it needs is for Park to keep her promise
Korea's corrupt and incompetent political and administrative systems were behind the sinking of the Sewol ferry on April 16. More than four months later, the poor handling of the disaster's aftermath is about to sink the nation's politics and administration.
After the two major political parties failed to come up with a special bill that satisfied the victims' relatives by establishing a committee with full investigative powers to examine the sinking of the Sewol, the major parties in the political establishment are busy passing the buck to one another.
The ruling party blames the opposition for nullifying hard-won agreements, while the latter accuses the former of not trying hard enough. The presidential office says it cannot, or will not, meddle in legislative affairs while the bereaved families are pointing their fingers at Cheong Wa Dae.
Behind the relatives' rejection of the second compromised bill last week is a deep-seated distrust of the entire political community, especially the governing Saenuri Party, some members of which have played down one of the biggest peacetime disasters as a ''traffic accident," while insulting the victims' relatives by referring to them as ''homeless people."
President Park Geun-hye has been little better. She refused to meet with the relatives of the dead recently and instead called in and comforted two of her former top aides ― the national security advisor and the spy chief ― dismissed for making improper remarks and behaving inappropriately when responding to the accident. This is a far cry from a few months ago when Park told the relatives to visit her anytime, and promised to enact a special law that ''would leave no room for your regrets."
The central issue is whether the fact-finding committee should have the right to investigate and indict suspects, mostly government officials, involved in the accident, as called for by the relatives.
Ruling party officials say this demand, if accepted, will set a bad precedent running counter to the best interests of the nation's judicial system, which bans offenders receiving direct punishment from victims or the relatives of them. According to formal logic, they are right. Even so, they should have made far bolder concessions in the composition of both the fact-finding committee and a panel authorized to recommend an independent counsel to the President, but they didn't, saying there are few problems for the relatives and political opposition to get to the bottom of the accident.
Maybe or maybe not, but Koreans have seen too many special prosecutors and fact-finding bodies, in name only, to remain optimistic.
It should be different this time around. What sets this disaster apart from similar previous incidents is not only the scale of the death toll, which exceeds 300, but the fact that the government failed to save not one of the victims who were trapped below decks. Unless the nation learns why, by clarifying every detail established through thorough investigations, and punishes all responsible, few can say for sure that Koreans will never see a second, or even a third tragedy similar to the Sewol disaster.
There are four steps for a government to take in order to recover from a national disaster: acknowledging, taking responsibility, social rebuilding and providing compensation. It is wrong for the ruling party to gloss over the first three phases and directly jump to the final one.
President Park has only to come back to her initial pledge and put it into action. Or, popular suspicions will only run deeper that the leader might have something to hide herself especially concerning the mysterious, even ''bizarre," first seven hours following first reports that the ferry was sinking.
Park needs to meet the relatives, and accept their demands regarding the committee except for giving it the legal authority to indict. This will be the only way to prevent her presidency from sinking along with the Sewol, and her country from sinking deeper into a quagmire.
Korea's corrupt and incompetent political and administrative systems were behind the sinking of the Sewol ferry on April 16. More than four months later, the poor handling of the disaster's aftermath is about to sink the nation's politics and administration.
After the two major political parties failed to come up with a special bill that satisfied the victims' relatives by establishing a committee with full investigative powers to examine the sinking of the Sewol, the major parties in the political establishment are busy passing the buck to one another.
The ruling party blames the opposition for nullifying hard-won agreements, while the latter accuses the former of not trying hard enough. The presidential office says it cannot, or will not, meddle in legislative affairs while the bereaved families are pointing their fingers at Cheong Wa Dae.
Behind the relatives' rejection of the second compromised bill last week is a deep-seated distrust of the entire political community, especially the governing Saenuri Party, some members of which have played down one of the biggest peacetime disasters as a ''traffic accident," while insulting the victims' relatives by referring to them as ''homeless people."
President Park Geun-hye has been little better. She refused to meet with the relatives of the dead recently and instead called in and comforted two of her former top aides ― the national security advisor and the spy chief ― dismissed for making improper remarks and behaving inappropriately when responding to the accident. This is a far cry from a few months ago when Park told the relatives to visit her anytime, and promised to enact a special law that ''would leave no room for your regrets."
The central issue is whether the fact-finding committee should have the right to investigate and indict suspects, mostly government officials, involved in the accident, as called for by the relatives.
Ruling party officials say this demand, if accepted, will set a bad precedent running counter to the best interests of the nation's judicial system, which bans offenders receiving direct punishment from victims or the relatives of them. According to formal logic, they are right. Even so, they should have made far bolder concessions in the composition of both the fact-finding committee and a panel authorized to recommend an independent counsel to the President, but they didn't, saying there are few problems for the relatives and political opposition to get to the bottom of the accident.
Maybe or maybe not, but Koreans have seen too many special prosecutors and fact-finding bodies, in name only, to remain optimistic.
It should be different this time around. What sets this disaster apart from similar previous incidents is not only the scale of the death toll, which exceeds 300, but the fact that the government failed to save not one of the victims who were trapped below decks. Unless the nation learns why, by clarifying every detail established through thorough investigations, and punishes all responsible, few can say for sure that Koreans will never see a second, or even a third tragedy similar to the Sewol disaster.
There are four steps for a government to take in order to recover from a national disaster: acknowledging, taking responsibility, social rebuilding and providing compensation. It is wrong for the ruling party to gloss over the first three phases and directly jump to the final one.
President Park has only to come back to her initial pledge and put it into action. Or, popular suspicions will only run deeper that the leader might have something to hide herself especially concerning the mysterious, even ''bizarre," first seven hours following first reports that the ferry was sinking.
Park needs to meet the relatives, and accept their demands regarding the committee except for giving it the legal authority to indict. This will be the only way to prevent her presidency from sinking along with the Sewol, and her country from sinking deeper into a quagmire.
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