Good Lawmakers, Bad Representatives
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Sitting lawmakers have been more active and worked harder than their predecessors in conducting legislative activities.
Yet amid job cuts, the general public's assessment of the role that their representatives played in the National Assembly appears to be at an all-time low, indicating a further lack of confidence in parliamentary representation.
Legislators have explored a variety of issues with enthusiasm, compared with their predecessors, attending English conversation courses, and lectures delivered by foreign diplomatic mission chiefs on their countries' experiences regarding achieving democracy and advanced legislative systems. They have also flocked to seminars on wealth redistribution, climate change and human rights of North Korean refugees.
According to the National Assembly Secretariat, the number of study groups in the first year hit a record high 55, hinting that their areas of interest vary.
Besides the extracurricular activity, incumbent legislators did a good job in their main duty of drafting bills as well. So far, they have submitted 4,447 bills in total to the unicameral legislature since their four-year term began in June last year.
Officials at the secretariat called the number alarmingly high, considering that the total number of bills submitted during the previous Assembly was 6,387, which marked the highest in its history.
Chilly inter-party relations, however, outshine their hard work as bills submitted to the Assembly are stuck in the middle of a tug-of-war between the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), creating the image that the representation system doesn't work properly.
Political observers say the imbalance in parliamentary seats among the ruling and opposition parties is probably one of the sources of malfunction in the parliamentary representation system.
The GNP has 169 of 299 Assembly seats, while the DP has 84 seats and the Liberty Forward Party (LFP), 18. The Pro-Park Geun-hye Coalition has five seats.
As the LFP and the coalition are in line with the ruling party in major issue areas, about two-thirds of lawmakers are either GNP legislators or sympathize with the GNP.
This has discouraged the liberal DP from attending votes when the two major parties fail to narrow their differences over certain issues in inter-party negotiations.
Knowing that the chances of their voices being heard in the decision-making process is low, the DP tries to find help from external allies such as militant and vocal trade unions outside the Assembly.
Observers say the slim chance of the DP winning a vote inside the Assembly drove it to be tough in negotiations to find solutions to temporary workers' job cuts.
The governing camp called for extending the current two-year ceiling of employment period of temporary workers to more years to prevent layoffs.
But the opposition insist that employers giving temporary staff permanent contracts is the only solution, repeating that there will be no major change in the total jobless rate because employers will replace current temporary workers with new ones.
Experts say the DP is currying favor with labor unions that oppose extension of temporary job contracts.
Political scientist Kim Hyong-joon of Myongji University in Seoul said Korea's unique party system, under which individual lawmakers' different ideas are not respected, is also responsible for the Assembly weak representation.