By Kim Jong-chan
Political Editor
President Lee Myung-bak has entered his second year in office, which political observers say is the appropriate time to start a push for full-fledged inter-party talks on constitutional change.
Lee's predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, had to drop plans to change the power structure as he came out with a proposal for constitutional revision in 2007, the fifth and last year of his five-year tenure, a time when the president usually becomes a lame duck.
The then-largest opposition party, the Grand National Party (GNP), now the governing party, rejected Roh's offer, labeling it a plot for the Roh camp, which had seen its support rate plunge to a record low, to turn the tide ahead of the last presidential election.
Now, a constitutional revision has a high chance of being approved as 186 lawmakers have joined an inter-party group with the aim of changing the Constitution to fit contemporary Korea. The figure is only 14 short of the quorum, 200 of 299 National Assembly seats, to pass an amendment to the basic law.
If things go well, the most likely scenario is that a referendum on constitutional change would coincide with the local elections in mid-2010.
The last constitutional change was made 22 years ago not only to revive direct presidential voting but also curb an imperial presidency and give more power to the legislature.
However, discussions have recently centered again on whether presidential power should be reduced, in other words, the president should share more with the prime minister and parliament.
Under the scheme, the president would be elected through a direct vote and the leader of the political party which wins the largest number of parliamentary seats in the general elections would become the prime minister. The former would take care of diplomacy and national defense, whereas the latter would be in charge of administrative affairs.
The move comes amid growing criticism that under the current Constitution, the president has too much power, which makes him or her an emperor or empress, who is empowered to appoint not only the chief justice and chief of the Constitutional Court but also head of the Board of Audit and Inspection which inspects government agencies.
The imperial presidency brought tragedy to many presidents. The nation's first, Syngman Rhee, had to step down in 1960 after students staged massive rallies to protest election rigging. Park Chung-hee, who took power in a 1961 military coup, was assassinated by one of his cronies in 1979 after 18 years of rule. Sons of Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung were jailed for receiving bribes. Roh Moo-hyun took his own life after investigations of allegations that his family accepted bribes from a businessman while he was in office.
As a way of reducing presidential power, some people have called for the introduction of a parliamentary system of government now adopted by Germany, under which the president is a leader with parliament and the cabinet sharing power.
Some others proposed that more power be given to local entities for decentralization.
Supporters of the current presidential system say that a parliamentary system is vulnerable to security threats posed by North Korea and that it is doubtful whether either a parliamentary scheme or combined power-sharing system would help ensure political stabilization.
The governing and opposition parties have shared the need for change. But a bumpy road lies ahead before the time-consuming work. A prerequisite is building a national consensus.
Any good measure will not guarantee political stabilization unless politicians are accustomed to politics of compromise or politics of concessions. Extreme inter-party confrontation, which was manifested again over bills that will reshape the media industry, angered people again. No compromise means no politics and that we are not politicians.