Grand Corruption Party

Ruling Camp Should Stop Testing Voters' Patience

``The Grand National Party (GNP) still stinks of corruption.'' This is not a criticism of the current governing party by the political opposition or civic groups. It was a remark made in October 2007 by In Myung-jin, then chairman of the GNP's own Ethics Committee. Nine months have passed, but the rotten smell seems to have gotten even more disgusting.

Citing widespread concern among voters about rampant graft in local governments and assemblies controlled by the GNP, the then largest opposition party, In also said, ``Unless our party rectifies this, I am worried how many people would trust us even if we snatch back power.'' One can't help but marvel at the foresight of the democracy fighter-turned-party purifier, who left the GNP in frustration later.

The bribery scandal involving the former chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Council is spreading to the National Assembly, or more correctly, to key GNP lawmakers, even including its floor leader. Opposition parties compare the GNP's swift disciplining of the problematic official to a lizard biting off its own tail for a quick escape. Rumors among political watchers have it that if the city council head ``opens his mouth,'' not a few GNP heads will roll.

It's long been claimed that local assemblies are little better than clubs of corrupt politicians and locally powerful clans. The local councils have long lost their raison d'etre, instead bent on pursuing their own benefits, such as doubling and even tripling their pay. The only thing they do is to promote the interests of regional businesses, such as the Seoul council's two attempts to allow the 24-hour operation of cramming schools.

Voters are never free from responsibility, by casting ballots almost blindly with no due attention to the qualification of the candidates themselves. When a particular party dominates more than 90 percent of Assembly seats, corruption is all but inevitable in Korea's still immature local autonomy.

Before it gets too late, voters should strengthen their monitoring into this ``dead angle'' of surveillance, move to sever party headquarters' improper intervention in local elections and put a brake on the local councilors' pursuit of their own interests, including unwarranted pay raises.

The branches and leaves of a tree cannot grow effectively if its roots are rotten. Likewise, if the GNP's local chapters are like this, it is highly questionable as to whether its headquarters are without problems.

Should voters again blame only themselves for choosing a ``corrupt but competent'' party over a ``clean but incompetent'' one? What if, however, the corrupt party proves also to be incompetent, as shown by the chaos in state affairs under the five-month-old administration of President Lee Myung-bak?

Worse still, the governing camp, which dominates both the executive and legislative branch, is even showing signs of renewed arrogance, if the government ministers' insincere responses to lawmakers' questions are any guide.

The governing GNP lawmakers have completely forgotten their role of checking the administration, only anxious to serve as the forward defense of the government, cowering the splintered opposition into silence.

There may be little wrong with the one-party rule if it goes in the right direction. If not, however ― which appears far more likely right now ― the whole nation will get into trouble amid a revival of ``street politics."