By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Former National Assembly speakers expressed deep concern Wednesday over the current political and diplomatic situation, advising President Lee Myung-bak to exert strong leadership so as to turn the challenges into opportunities.
Kim Soo-han said in an interview with Yonhap News that the nature of the current debacle was even worse than that of the 1950-53 Korean War and the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
South Korea is caught up in diplomatic tension with Japan as Tokyo renews its claim to the Korean islets of Dokdo in the East Sea, while the legislature has been inactive for two months as legislators failed to reach an agreement on issues regarding the government's decision to resume American beef imports.
``The nation faces both internal and external challenges due to the disappearance of effective leadership,'' Kim said.
Kim advised President Lee to reshuffle Cabinet ministers responsible for the blunders, and reform the government in an effective manner.
Lee Man-sup, who served as speaker twice in the 14th and 16th legislature, said the three bodies ― the presidential office, ministries and the legislature ― should stop playing the blame game and instead strive to find a constructive way to help the nation overcome the hostile environment.
Lee claimed the current situation was a man-made crisis and therefore politicians should not attempt to blame the system for failures in diplomacy.
He asked government leaders to stop emotional responses to Japan over the territorial issue and work on a long-term, durable foreign policy strategy to prevent the recurrence of similar cases.
The former speaker urged lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties to end the consuming fight in the legislature, and collaborate to form standing committees as soon as possible to discuss major national issues.
Negotiations between the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and the largest opposition Democratic Party (DP) showed little sign of reaching an agreement regarding witnesses for a hearing on the resumption of the beef imports.
GNP lawmakers insisted several MBC journalists, responsible for spreading misleading information on mad cow disease through the PD Notebook program, should appear as witnesses, claiming the program sparked the anti-American beef protests.
But DP lawmakers argued that the journalists simply reported what they investigated.
The tug-of-war has led lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties to keep fighting in the legislature, prompting the opposition DP to boycott the GNP's call to form standing committees.
Another former Assembly speaker Park Kwan-yong expressed doubt that President Lee had learned a lesson from this experience.
Park proposed the President allow his aides to have adequate levels of discretion so that they can take responsibility for their decisions, and not try to take care of everything alone.