Rival parties should restore politics based on cooperation
The National Assembly kicked off the second half of its four-year-term Monday by convening an extraordinary session, after virtually dozing away its time due to a partisan feud over a pile of pending issues and lack of cooperation between rival parties since the May 2017 inauguration of the Moon Jae-in government.
Yet, the prospects are still not bright amid contentious issues, such as the sagging economy, a sharp hike in the minimum wage, a shorter 52-hour workweek and North Korea's denuclearization agenda, over which the ruling and opposition parties are pitted against each other.
So far, the Assembly has been even called a "necessary evil" for its incompetence to deal with many national issues and bills forwarded by lawmakers and the government. Most lawmakers have also lost public confidence for a long time since they have been only obsessed with gaining their personal and partisan interests rather than the people's.
Although it falls short of a majority of the 300-seat Assembly, the governing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is largely responsible for the inefficient operation of the Assembly because it has been passive in seeking cooperation from the opposition camp.
Politics through cooperation and compromise between the ruling and opposition parties has been missing. The new leadership of the Assembly should play its given role to help restore the bipartisan cooperation to work for a better livelihood of the people. Lawmakers also have to think again what their job is. Their job is not to feud with each other with their political interests at stake. Their principal role is legislation as their title _ lawmaker _ implies.
The ruling camp's major economic policies are focused on income-led growth and economic fairness. These policy goals cannot be attained without the Assembly's legislation. It is urgent for lawmakers to work out measures to cover the damage self-employed persons and small business owners are expected to suffer due to the minimum wage hike and the shorter workweek.
The National Assembly kicked off the second half of its four-year-term Monday by convening an extraordinary session, after virtually dozing away its time due to a partisan feud over a pile of pending issues and lack of cooperation between rival parties since the May 2017 inauguration of the Moon Jae-in government.
Yet, the prospects are still not bright amid contentious issues, such as the sagging economy, a sharp hike in the minimum wage, a shorter 52-hour workweek and North Korea's denuclearization agenda, over which the ruling and opposition parties are pitted against each other.
So far, the Assembly has been even called a "necessary evil" for its incompetence to deal with many national issues and bills forwarded by lawmakers and the government. Most lawmakers have also lost public confidence for a long time since they have been only obsessed with gaining their personal and partisan interests rather than the people's.
Although it falls short of a majority of the 300-seat Assembly, the governing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is largely responsible for the inefficient operation of the Assembly because it has been passive in seeking cooperation from the opposition camp.
Politics through cooperation and compromise between the ruling and opposition parties has been missing. The new leadership of the Assembly should play its given role to help restore the bipartisan cooperation to work for a better livelihood of the people. Lawmakers also have to think again what their job is. Their job is not to feud with each other with their political interests at stake. Their principal role is legislation as their title _ lawmaker _ implies.
The ruling camp's major economic policies are focused on income-led growth and economic fairness. These policy goals cannot be attained without the Assembly's legislation. It is urgent for lawmakers to work out measures to cover the damage self-employed persons and small business owners are expected to suffer due to the minimum wage hike and the shorter workweek.
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