ed Cooperation with parties
The government and the ruling and opposition parties are gearing up for cooperative governance amid a radically changed political landscape. Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho met with chief policymakers from the three main parties Friday to discuss an array of economy-related issues.
The meeting was a follow-up to an agreement reached between President Park Geun-hye and floor leaders of the three parties earlier this month following the ruling party’s poor performance in last month’s general election.
The meeting on concrete policies is encouraging in that the government can form a consensus on the need to resolve issues through dialogue and compromise with parties although they can differ on specific solutions. It’s also encouraging that the government is expanding communication with the political circle instead of asking for cooperation unilaterally.
During Friday’s meeting, the finance minister and the chief policymakers agreed to hold such meetings regularly every month, with the next session slated for the second week of June.
They also narrowed their differences on the adoption of a performance-based wage system in the public corporate sector. The parties called for an agreement between workers and employers before introducing the plan, and the government promised that there wouldn’t be illegal acts on the part of employers.
While it’s true the first meeting raised expectations for cooperation between the government and the parties, it remains to be seen if they can hammer out compromises on a host of pending national issues. In fact, their nearing in opinion on the merit-based salary system falls far short of people’s expectations, considering that it will be all but impossible to adopt without the agreement of labor unions.
They also reached a consensus on the principles of corporate restructuring: clarifying the accountability of stakeholders, minimizing the financial burden held by the public and raising funds for state-run banks to carry out restructuring programs. But they hardly discussed how to recapitalize the troubled banks.
All this raises concerns that the government and the parties might only be pretending to join forces for fear of public recrimination and are failing to produce tangible results in improving people’s livelihoods through the meetings.
What is needed therefore is to make the meetings fruitful and effective. And this requires the parties to give up blind pursuit of partisan interests when it comes to issues linked with people’s livelihoods.