By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Largest opposition Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers Friday said democracy has been backtracking under the Lee Myung-bak administration.
``We have gone backward, not forward, in the past year. As a result, democracy is under threat, the economy is staggering and inter-Korean relations are heading toward an impasse,'' said Rep. Baek Won-woo.
Baek urged President Lee to shift his stance on major policies, arguing the nation is moving in the wrong direction.
Another DP lawmaker, Park Sang-cheon, said the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) pushed for a reform drive in major policy areas without consensus from opposition parties.
``The presidential office was flexing its muscles behind the GNP's reform drive. Politics is all about representing the will of the public and negotiating and compromising of different views are necessary, but this process is lacking under the current scheme,'' said Park.
Earlier, DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun said independent counsel should investigate the displaced tenants case in Yongsan, which took six lives of tenants and a police officer, because the prosecution's investigation has not gone on the right track and favored police.
DP lawmakers also expressed discontent over the arrest of Internet columnist Minerva, saying punishing him is a violation of the freedom of expression.
They also oppose a set of bills aimed at discouraging protestors from seeking violent rallies. GNP lawmakers are seeking measures that would allow business owners having experienced income losses due to violent protests to seek class action lawsuits against protestors.
DP lawmakers claimed `bad MB laws,'' arguing they would undermine the freedom of expression and speech.
To fix the malfunctioning system, DP floor leader Won Hye-young pledged that his party would introduce a set of binding measures for confirmation hearings of Cabinet nominees so that opposition's voices are heard.
Won was referring to President Lee's appointment of Unification Minister Hyun In-taek and spy agency chief Won Se-hoon despite the opposition's protest against the nominations following the confirmation hearing.
DP lawmakers said the two were the wrong choices, as they are implicated in multiple suspicious activities, including property speculation.
Under current law, parliamentary hearings of nominees of Cabinet members are not binding, meaning that the president can appoint designates even when legislature members don't approve them.
The DP floor leader said his party members would call on the ruling and minor opposition parties to agree on voting nominees so that the President cannot appoint his picks when the National Assembly vetoes nominees.
The ruling GNP, however, rejected the DP's negative assessment of the first year of the Lee administration, urging it to collaborate with the GNP to reach bipartisan efforts at a time when the local economy seriously suffers the deleterious effects of the global economic downturn.
``President Lee and his team were just like crew members on a vessel sailing through stormy weather over the past year after his inauguration,'' said GNP Chairman Park Hee-tae, stressing the hostile economic environment facing the economy.
Park made the remark at a seminar prepared by a GNP think tank to evaluate major economic and social policies implemented by President Lee.
GNP lawmaker Jeong Tae-keun warned that the public would give the DP the cold shoulder if it continues to rely on short-sighted politics that only serves its vested interests.
Jeong said DP lawmakers need to sit down with their ruling party counterparts to move the bills pending in the legislature forward instead of boycotting their duties at standing committees, where they are supposed to deliberate reform bills.