New National Assembly gets off to rocky start
The ruling and opposition parties have proved again how difficult it is to overcome their partisanship and form a consensus. This explains why the newly elected National Assembly has got off to a rocky start since it was inaugurated May 30.
Partisanship was evident on the first day of the Assembly's plenary session June 5 when lawmakers of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP) walked out of the chamber right after the opening. The UFP cited the “unilateral” opening of the session by the governing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) as the reason for its walkout.
But what is really at stake is how to organize the 18 standing committees of the Assembly and who will chair them. The rival parties have failed to narrow their differences over this thorny issue, delaying the full operation of the Assembly. Their showdown centers around the Legislation and Judiciary Committee as both parties are uncompromisingly seeking to take the leadership of the committee.
For its part, the UFP wants to lead the committee in order to check the “tyranny” of the strong ruling party which won 177 seats, a supermajority in the 300-seat Assembly, in the April 15 general election. It is seeking to review all bills to be presented to the Assembly through the legislation committee by having the chairman's post. It is also trying to curb the government and ruling party's bid to push for judicial reform.
However, the DPK said that as the majority party, it cannot yield the committee chairmanship to the opposition. It has even threaten to mobilize its majority power to take the chairman's post, saying that it was impossible to make any concession to the UFP.
As the rival parties show no room for compromise, Speaker Park Byeong-seug gave them three days to settle the dispute. Thus the Assembly has to complete its work to organize the standing committees and select chairpersons of each by tomorrow.
In that case, it is certain that a DPK lawmaker will take the helm of the legislation and judiciary committee; and the UFP might launch a struggle against the DPK by boycotting the Assembly operation. This will dim any hope for the opposition's cooperation in many important issues, including efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and minimize its crippling impact on the economy.
We hope both parties will make last-ditch efforts to find a compromise. This is not the time for partisan strife; instead, it is time for them to solve the problem through dialogue. If they cannot do so, they will inevitably invite the rage of the people who are already fed up with their dog-eat-dog partisanship.