'Korea's democracy in crisis'

Lawmakers of the People Power Party (PPP) hold pickets protesting the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's railroading of contentious bills at an extra session of the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday, after a revision bill related to a new investigative agency tasked with high-profile corruption cases has been passed. Yonhap

Supermajority DPK railroading contentious bills

By Jung Da-min

Concerns are growing over the ruling Democratic Party of Korea's (DPK) making the most use of its supermajority in the National Assembly, as it continues to steamroller controversial bills through the legislature.

The opposition bloc and experts say such an act is damaging the democratic values that President Moon Jae-in and the DPK had pledged to uphold.

The DPK has 173 seats, almost three fifths of the 300-strong Assembly, and thus is able to push ahead with the passage of contentious bills with the support of several liberal-minded lawmakers. The main opposition People Power Party (PPP), on the other hand, has 103 seats and does not have any practical way to prevent the ruling party from passing the bills.

The PPP's attempt to stop the passage of a revision bill on a new agency tasked with investigating high-profile corruption cases by staging a filibuster at the plenary session at the National Assembly, Wednesday, for example, was frustrated as the DPK convened an extra session the following day. The bill was passed, Thursday, with 187 lawmakers ― DPK members and others from liberal parties ― approving it.

After the passage, Moon said he was glad that he could keep his promise of setting up the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO).

“Establishing the office was a longstanding promise to the public to make a transparent society by investigating corruption of powerful people, including the president and aides, and achieving checks and balance between investigative agencies,” Moon was quoted as saying by presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok.

Similar situations are likely to occur with other contentious bills, including one related to reform of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and another banning the sending of anti-North Korea leaflets to the North. The PPP staged a filibuster again to prevent a vote on the NIS reform bill at the extra Assembly session, Thursday, but this can't be a fundamental solution to prevent the ruling party from steamrollering the bills.

Political analysts point out that the DPK's moves could cause it to lose the trust of the people, as they are against the spirit of democracy.

“Although the ruling party is trying to justify its actions by calling them legislative moves for the reform of powerful agencies, it is ignoring the basic procedures in which the main opposition party is given an opportunity to debate against them,” political commentator Yu Chang-seon said. “The DPK's railroading of contentious bills while skipping all the procedures of consultation and deliberation also goes against the spirit of cooperation which President Moon has often emphasized.”

Jang Sung-min, a former lawmaker of the DPK's predecessor, who served as political affairs secretary and head of the state affairs monitoring office under the former liberal President Kim Dae-jung, also criticized the Moon government for damaging the spirit of democracy.

“The revision bill for the new investigative body was railroaded by the DPK at the Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee. It was as if a military force was conducting a military operation when the revision bill was introduced and passed within six minutes. During this, the opposition was silenced from the beginning,” Jang said. “The ruling bloc destroyed its own political legitimacy, and the spirit of the candlelit protests which emphasized a citizens participatory democracy.”

Political commentator Choi Young-il said the DPK has no other options as next year's by-elections, including those for the mayoral posts of Seoul and Busan, are approaching, and it seeks to show political outcomes for its enthusiastic supporters.

“When the support rate of the ruling bloc has been on a decline, it faces a political challenge in which those supporting the opposition bloc are increasing while the supporters of the ruling bloc are leaving,” Choi said. “As the ruling bloc cannot bring its opponents to its side, it is focusing on holding onto its supporters by showing a determined stance in its tasks of reforming powerful agencies.”