[Editorial] Session in jeopardy

The regular session of an outgoing National Assembly is the least productive as its members often shun debate on issues of concern to the public, deliberation on pending bills and participation in voting. Instead, they tend to make a final pitch in constituency work in their electoral districts in pursuit of reelection.

This year’s 100-day final regular session for the 18th National Assembly, which opened on Thursday, will be no exception. If the past experience is any guide, it will not be unusual for routine standing committee sessions to be disrupted as they are deserted by committee members. Nor will it be easy to schedule voting on bills in plenary sessions.

Still worse, the regular session is in greater jeopardy as Seoul’s mayoral by-election is scheduled for Oct. 26. Rival political parties will certainly deploy many of its lawmakers for the campaigns during the run-up to the mayoral by-election. They regard the by-election as a prelude to the general parliamentary elections and the presidential election, respectively set for April and December next year.

The mayoral post was vacated when Oh Se-hoon resigned as Seoul mayor when a referendum he called against the opposition’s demand for free lunches in school was invalidated last week. Winning the subsequent by-election is crucial to the ruling Grand National Party and the main opposition Democratic Party, both of which believe the electoral outcome will have a great impact on the parliamentary and presidential elections.

During its regular session, the National Assembly has two important tasks to accomplish, in addition to the usual job of making laws and debating key policy issues: the passage of the next year’s budget bill and an inspection of government agencies, state-invested corporations and state-funded organizations. They are the constitutional obligations required of members of the National Assembly.

Under Article 54 of the Constitution, the administration is required to submit the budget request for the next year by Oct. 2. And the National Assembly is given until Dec. 2 to revise it as it sees fit and pass the revised bill. It should go without saying that it must meet the constitutional deadline, but the reality is that it rarely does. The main opposition party is more to blame than the ruling party.

Again this year, the chances are very slim that the National Assembly will approve the budget bill by Dec. 2. As it does all the time, the opposition will certainly hold out until the eleventh hour to get the most out of its budgetary negotiations with the ruling party. What opposition lawmaker would not like to have some big-ticket project for his constituency to his credit?

According to the legislative calendar, lawmakers are set to inspect government agencies and state-invested corporations for 20 days from Sept. 19. Here again, nothing much will come out of the inspection, as many lawmakers will be drafted to campaign for the mayoral candidates of their parties.

Under these circumstances, few would expect that lawmakers will pay much attention to more than 6,000 bills on the docket, and all the more so, given that they whiled away the August extra session. Yet, among the bills and motions are those which need prompt action.

First among them is the administration’s motion for the ratification of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement. The ruling party is determined to have the accord ratified in October. It expects the U.S. Senate will also have rarified it by that time.

But the main opposition party, claiming that the treaty was renegotiated at the expense of Korea’s interest, vows to resist it until it is negotiated again for balanced mutual benefits. It also demands that the Korea government take compensatory measures for industries sustaining damage from the treaty.

With another round of renegotiations virtually out of the question, the ruling and opposition parties may well seek a compromise on the proposed remedial measures for the prospective victims. If no compromise is made, the ruling party may choose to put the motion to a vote alone.

With regard to other bills that demand prompt action, the ruling and opposition parties will do well to prioritize them, start negotiations on urgent ones and pass them. That is the least they can do.