Setting priorities for politics

By Tong Kim

South Korea has a unique parliamentary system under which two major competing parties prefer to agree to vote on any legislative bill or to approve cabinet nominations. Technically, the ruling Saenuri Party which has an absolute majority in the National Assembly, can endorse the president’s controversial nominee Lee Wan-Koo for Prime Minister.

However, such approval requires the convening of a plenary session of the national legislature, to which the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) agreed. The opposition party has since changed its position, proposing to determine the fate of the beleaguered candidate by conducting a joint public opinion survey with the ruling party and the presidential office.

The proposal was announced by Moon Jae-in, the opposition party’s newly elected chairman, who ran unsuccessfully against President Park in the 2012 presidential election. Today he leads the polls among presidential aspirants. A parliamentary confirmation hearing has found multiple problems with Lee on several grounds.

Lee showed a heavy-handed, arrogant attitude toward the press, telling some reporters he can stop negative reports about him through his influence on their editors. He failed to fulfill his constitutional obligation of military service, he failed to file a proper financial report as a public servant, and he amassed wealth through dubious real estate dealings.

In addition, he was also accused of being involved in the notorious Samcheong character reformation program of the Chun Doo-whan military regime, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of young people from harsh mistreatment. At the hearing, Lee also failed to clear up suspicions about how he got a doctoral degree and professorship with a college where he has never taught. Unusually high honorariums for his speeches were questioned.

Private polls last week, including an on-line survey by The Korea Times, showed a clear disapproval of Lee’s appointment. Although unlikely, the president can still appoint him without parliamentary consensus. If she does, her new prime minister will lack political authority to carry out his challenging duties.

President Park has been under fire for being incommunicado with the people, and for appointing unqualified, poor candidates for cabinet positions and defending those close to her from public criticism. The President is hard pressed to change her chief of staff and to carry out major personnel and policy reform. It will be a big setback to her presidency, if Lee’s nomination also fails.

On the other hand, Moon Jae-in’s proposal for a joint opinion survey is also dubious in the sense that it is a new twist to the legislative procedure. National leaders and politicians ought to pay attention to public opinion, and should reflect it in their policy as appropriate. In this regard, if the opposition party is convinced that the nomination should not go through, they should vote against it or even boycott the vote, according to the rules.

The opposition has also been under public pressure against acts of “opposition for the sake of opposition.” It tries hard to improve its approval rating, which still trails the ruling party. The opposition has plenty of its own problems and challenges ― to end factionalism and to reform selection of candidates for public offices, especially following the recent party convention, which selected its chairman and its “highest ranking committee members” to serve for the next two years.

Moon’s political future will depend on his performance as party leader in preparing for the special elections this April, and on success or failure in the next year’s general elections for the National Assembly. If his party fails in the general elections, there would be no chance for him to run in the 2017 presidential election. He has publicly acknowledged such a possible retirement from politics.

In this connection, regionalism complicates the equation of national politics, as Lee is a favorite son of Chungcheong Province, a middle region critical to the election of a president. Support for the opposition party has already started declining since the debate over the nomination.

In any case, the NPAD should stand on its own position, instead of relying on public opinion. In the Korean democratic system, elected officials and their parties are subject to judgment by the people at the next round of elections for what the officials and parties have done during their terms in office. Until then, they should exercise their legitimate rights and responsibility to contribute to what they think is best for the state and their districts.

Choosing a new prime minister is important, but the history of prime ministers shows that the position holder was simply a ceremonial figurehead under the strong presidential system. By law the prime minister’s job is to assist the president and supervise the cabinet members with instructions from the president.

The more important tasks lying ahead equally for the administration and the parliament are how to maintain peace and security on the peninsula, and how to pay for welfare, and to resolve the issues of tax reform, pension reform, an aging population, public safety, labor, education and housing.

It is important to set a proper balance between the upper 10 percent of the rich who have most of the nation’s wealth and the rest of the population whose livelihoods are becoming tighter. The government should induce the big corporations with huge cash reserves to invest in projects that will lead to growth, jobs, consumption, and technology. Like other advanced economies, Korea also has to start addressing the problems of neoliberal practices running out of control. What’s your take?

The author is a visiting scholar at the Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University, a visiting professor at the University of North Korean Studies and an ICAS fellow in the United States.