Political Maneuvering

Assembly Inspection Should Promote Checks and Balances

It is clear that the National Assembly's annual inspection of government agencies cannot live up to public expectations as seen in past years. The reason is because lawmakers of both ruling and opposition parties are playing a blame game to find faults with each other before the Oct. 28 by-elections, in which five parliamentary seats are being contested. The Assembly kicked off its 20-day inspection on Monday. However, the rival parties have already turned the inspection into an arena for political maneuvering to get more seats in the elections.

The governing Grand National Party (GNP) has vowed to conduct the inspection as a way of prodding the Lee Myung-bak administration into implementing its policy measures to help people ease their difficulties amid the global economic crisis. It has also promised to present better policy options for the government to smoothly steer the nation away from the worldwide recession. In addition, the GNP expressed hope of shirking the blame away from the government, a move driven by the Democratic Party (DP) and other opposition parties.

But such hope has turned out to be only wishful thinking as the opposition parties started to fire a barrage of salvoes against the Lee government in order to occupy a vantage ground for the elections. One of the opposition lawmakers' most attractive targets is a government move to downgrade the status of an administrative town which is under construction to relocate nine ministries and four government agencies out of Seoul. Newly appointed Prime Minister Chung Un-chan has ignited a debate over the issue since his nomination early last month, when he suggested that the town, located in Yeongi and Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, be subject to change.

Along with the DP on the first day of the inspection, the minor opposition Liberty Forward Party, whose power base is in South and North Chungcheong Provinces, slammed Chung for trying to undo the administrative town project. The party is apparently aiming to escalate public anger over Chung's move in a bid to win the by-election in the region. Opposition legislators have also begun to carry out political offensives against Chung over allegations of tax evasion, draft dodging and unreported income while serving as a Seoul National University professor.

The opposition parties are also seeking to raise such issues as the four-river refurbishment project, the 2010 budget plan, and the policy failure over the protection of part-time workers and casual laborers. No one would oppose discussing those issues as long as lawmakers deal with them to maintain checks and balances between the legislative and executive branches. But if they utilize such issues only for partisan struggles, people cannot but turn their backs on the National Assembly, which has often been marred by violence among lawmakers of warring parties.

It's time for the legislators to put an end to destructive party politics in order to better reflect people's aspirations. They must keep in mind that the parliamentary inspection of government agencies is designed to guarantee democratic checks and balances. It is not for political maneuvers made out of partisan interests at the sacrifice of the people.