The ruling Uri Party is in a state of internal dispute as the new year begins, over the failure to pass the four major reform bills. Floor leader Chun Jung Bae resigned from his post on January 1, immediately after the close of the extraordinary session of the National Assembly. Lee Bu Young and other party leaders are scheduled to hold a meeting of Uri's standing central committee, at which they will decide on whether or not to step down in unison. The party has a convention coming in April, and right now there are conflicting assertions that the leadership should resign now and assume responsibility for the situation versus the claim that such a change would lead to internal confusion. The party's internal issues and the future of party authority is not something to be wrangling over.
Uri has been more than a disappointment; it has caused feelings of betrayal. It was to begin a new era of true democracy and civil rights that the people gave Uri, which campaigned on a reform platform, a majority in the National Assembly in last year's elections. All it did, however, was beat around the bush and accomplish nothing of substance. It made abolishing the National Security Law (NSL) an official goal and even set a date to make it happen, but then it wavered all over the place and ended up losing the public's confidence. It essentially got dragged around by the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and ended up wasting all its time.
It is nothing more than an excuse to say that the impasse was inevitable because the GNP stubbornly refused to listen to anything. Uri has a majority of seats in the Assembly and had a ready ally for reform in the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), so it has entirely its own lack of leadership and strategy to blame for not making progress. It failed to make use of what is available within the parliamentary framework to assure main floor superiority for the majority party. The complex composition of the party itself also contributed to its weak framework. The most fundamental problem was that it failed to fix the problems over a period of more than 8 months.
The concern is that it is highly probable that the situation will continue and reform legislation will be watered down and passed by compromise during the extraordinary Assembly session coming in February. Uri must return to the mindset it held at the start of the 17th National Assembly. It needs to take command of its mission and goals and get its act together so as to achieve reform in February's session without fail. It will essentially be Uri Party's last chance.
The Hankyoreh, 3 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Last Chance for Uri Party |
