By Jun Ji-hye
The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) have been gearing up for a key 26-day extraordinary session of the National Assembly that starts today.
With four months to go before the June 4 local elections, the rivals are expected to be engaged in a fierce political battle to generate results that will appeal to voters.
Among the key issues dividing both parties are the latest leakage of the personal information of credit cardholders, the Park Geun-hye administration’s apparent retreat from campaign pledges to promote welfare.
The parties agreed last week to carry out a parliamentary investigation at the National Policy Committee into the leak of more than 100 million personal financial details of some 20 million people from three credit card companies ― KB Kookmin, NongHyup and Lotte.
Other relevant committees will hold hearings on countermeasures in the legislative process to prevent the recurrence of such an incident.
Even before proceedings begin, the rivals are already as divided as ever on the matter.
The governing side said that government entities and the Assembly should place priority on helping credit card issuers correct their mistakes.
On the other hand, the DP says Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok and Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Shin Je-yoon should step down before the Assembly conducts the parliamentary probe and hearings.
Another hot-potato issue is Park’s revised proposal for a basic pension. The government submitted a bill in November to offer between 100,000 to 200,000 won monthly to 70 percent of low-income seniors over 65 years of age. The bill also suggested linking basic pension with the National Pension Service.
The largest opposition party is criticizing Park for retreating on her presidential campaign pledge, urging the ruling side to stick to its original promise_ providing all seniors with 200,000 won as a basic pension.
The difference is expected to lead to an intense battle in a nine-member consultative group composed of four lawmakers from the ruling party, four from the DP and the health and welfare minister.
The rivals’ confrontation over whether to abolish the practice of parties selecting candidates for municipal mayors and councilors in local elections is expected to continue as they agreed in principle to extend their negotiation in a parliamentary special committee on political reform until the end of February.
The DP, together with independent lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo, is pressuring the governing party to keep its election pledge of scrapping the top-down nomination system, while the latter insists that the system should be maintained to guarantee candidates rights of political expression and voters’ rights to know.
Other sensitive matters include the North Korean Human Rights Law, which the ruling party wants to pass within the month. The DP said it will participate in the discussion, but added that passing the law this month could be difficult.
“Parties are busy handling various matters that they failed to deal with in the last session. The ruling party will spare no efforts to approve the basic pension law and the human rights law,” said Choi Kyung-hwan, floor leader of the ruling party.
Choi’s DP counterpart Jun Byung-hun said, “The ruling party should handle the basic pension issue through compromise from both sides, and President Park should fulfill her election pledge to scrap the party nominations.”
In the meantime, the parties plan to push ahead with amending the relevant law to carry out parliamentary audits and inspections twice a year ― in June and September. Under the standing law, the Assembly audit is conducted once a year.