It hasn’t even begun, and people are already tired of it.
The new 20th National Assembly begins at the end of this month, and does so on a very low note.
The warning could not have been clearer from the voters in the latest election.
The ruling Saenuri Party had its majority snatched away, while the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea was nearly locked out of its home base in the Jeolla provinces.
Yet the fleeting truce among the parties’ battling factions during the campaign period quickly ended. Instead, they busily searched for plausible scapegoats to blame for their lackluster performance.
Under the facade of soul-searching, winners who scraped through heaved a sigh of relief, as they caressed their tiny golden badges that will secure them of four years of power.
A helpless glimmer of hope toward newly elected whips pledging “hyeopchi” (politics of compromise) was replaced with a familiar letdown after they met President Park Geun-hye last week.
Reverting back to their comfortable territory of ideological debate, the parties and the government tussled over whether a ceremonial song, or lack thereof, manifests the required level of respect to democracy.
This week, the Saenuri Party failed to endorse its new interim leadership as Park loyalists boycotted the vote, seething at their exclusion from the top positions. It was the same group that connived in the president’s blunt removal of a floor leader that they had elected for betraying her last year.
Resigning reform committee chief nominee Rep. Kim Yong-tae convincingly said, “Democracy in the Saenuri Party is dead.”
Their rival is by no means in better shape, as the Minjoo Party members struggle to cover up their hunger for power with self-serving morality. Trapped in self-righteousness, and living with the ghost of past democratic movements, the party has repeatedly failed to bring alternatives to the conservative plans. As the people so often put it, the Minjoo Party wins in elections not because it did well, but because its rival did worse.
Years of such craven and rowdy politics have driven the people to seriously impugn the efficacy of the representative system, the backbone of democracy. The media has played a large part as an instigator, willingly providing hefty spaces for the politicians to bicker and backbite.
With the presidential election looming next year, the inhibited battle among the factions and parties is likely to intensify.
But surely, the above depiction may do some -- hopefully many -- lawmakers injustice. For the good of the people, we continue to believe in the potential for justice, moral and common sense.
Just as how a good leader would foresee a failing economy and make preemptive moves to resurrect it, politicians must grasp the reality of how malignant politics has become for the people.
The Assembly members must remind themselves of their constitutional right and duty to legislate, deliberate budget and keep the administration in check.
As experts continuously note, the party whips must gain higher parliamentary control over the chairpersons, as the latter represent the interest of the party, not the laws.
A lawmaker’s performance must not be based on the number of laws he or she gets passed, but on their quality.
The assessment process of each bill should become more efficient, specified and open with multiple layers of filtering to prevent rash legislations. For this, the Assembly must be given better infrastructure and manpower. The media must fulfill its role as a proper gatekeeper.
The special budget committee should be made permanent, as properly managing the budget is the foundation for sound operation of a country.
The annual national audit should operate year-round so that the most important tool to keep the administration in check no longer becomes a rough-and-ready performance.
Each party, with increasingly blurred lines of identity, should update and redefine their policy directions and prioritized values. Their members would then know what they are fighting for, and voters would know what they are voting for.
Most of all, they should respect the laws that they have legislated, and no longer view them as chips to bargain with and things to tweak whenever necessary. As those responsible for making laws, they should be the most afraid of the laws.
These calls for changes are constantly revisited, but they will most likely not be realized, at least not in the immediate future, as the imminent goal often eclipses the bigger risk ahead.
But the people are already changing. More are yearning for the true implementation of polyarchy, where they can enjoy their right to contest and participate in the system.
Anti-institutional sentiment against the government, politics and media is soaring, as in other developed democracies.
More people are taking matters into their own hands, by participating directly through rallies and offering voices on diversified platforms.
It is time for established politics and the like to realize that they -- we -- must catch up.
By Lee Joo-hee (
jhl@heraldcorp.com)