Let‘s vote

If you won’t go to polls, don’t complain about life

``I vote, therefore I think.” So goes the title of a booklet written by French scholar Jean-Paul Jouary, who stresses the need for voters to cast their ballots, from the viewpoint of political philosophy. One might ask whether Koreans need a foreign philosopher to realize the importance of voting. Probably not, except the voter turnout in this young democracy is far lower than in one of the oldest.

The parliamentary election today to form the 19th National Assembly may or may not be a historic one ― depending on voter participation. Korea is now going through a period of transition from an inhumanely competitive and imbalanced society to a more harmonious and equitable one. Many Koreans, who attained political democratization in 1987 with blood and sweat, are faced with the opportunity to realize economic democratization 25 years later ― much more easily.

Voters should not miss it, and not repeat their mistakes of four years ago, when record-low turnout led to one party’s domination of both the presidential office and National Assembly. Everybody knows what happened thereafter: the three pillars of life ― basic rights, livelihood and peace ― have fallen back to levels of a decade ago.

The ruling Saenuri Party does not even reflect much on its past wrongs and mistakes, heaping all the blame on lame-duck President Lee Myung-bak. It then criticized the opposition parties as followers of North Korea and for picking up radical and/or low-grade candidates.

It is up to voters to make a decision on which is worse between hardly changeable governing party and poor-electioneering opposition party, and between candidates who have helped, and spearheaded in many cases, to make policies that made their lives hard for four long years, and a couple of erratic candidates who hurt their feelings temporarily.

Nor should they regard parliamentary polls as ``skirmishes” for the presidential election in December. Koreans, who directly transited from monarchy to democracy without undergoing a citizens’ revolution, tend to think of the president as a modern monarch, putting the executive branch over legislature.

It’s small surprise then President Lee thinks of governing-party lawmakers as his errand boys of sort. If Korea’s democracy is to take one step further, legislators, ruling or opposition, should be able to check the president and his or her administration, and voters should elect lawmakers capable of doing that.

Just think: there is only one key elected official within the administration, compared with 300 representatives of the people in the legislative branch. Which should be more important and which election should be more crucial for their lives?

All voters are urged to hit the polls today, a special holiday. The government should punish managers of businesses who deprive their employees of this precious right by forcing them to work. Schools, including the high school of President Lee, should refrain from going on a picnic that day. What can teenagers learn about democracy from teachers who treat the election day as little more than a no-study day?

If there are no best candidates, mark the least bad ones. No amount of spring flowers or drizzle should be the reason for leaving your fate to others for four years.