Under the law governing the operations of the National Assembly, the ruling Saenuri Party cannot pass bills through the Assembly without the assent of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.
This rule has given the NPAD undue power in operating in the Assembly. So the ruling party has brought the law before the Constitutional Court, claiming it is unconstitutional as it runs against majority rule, the first and foremost principle of democracy.
Yet the positions of the two parties were reversed over the government’s budget proposal for 2016. The same law requires the Assembly’s budget committee to complete an examination of the budget bill by Nov. 30. When the committee fails to finish its examination by the deadline, the bill is directly referred to the plenary session in its original form.
Under this rule, the government’s budget proposal was submitted to the plenary session on Dec. 1 following the budget committee’s failure to finish its deliberations on it by the deadline.
The bill would have been passed without any amendment had there been no agreement between the ruling and main opposition parties by Dec. 2, the deadline for its passage.
The ruling party had little to lose, even if the government’s proposal was passed in its original form. But for NPAD lawmakers, it meant a disaster, as they would be unable to tell voters during campaigning for the April general election what they had done to increase budget allocations for their own constituencies.
So the ruling party linked amendment of the government’s budget proposal to the passage of the bills it deemed important. This way, it could push two bills aimed at revitalizing the economy through the Assembly on Thursday, along with the amended budget bill.
One of the bills is about building hotels to attract more tourists. It took more than three years for the bill to win Assembly approval. It is expected to stimulate hotel construction and help make Seoul a more attractive tourist destination.
The other bill is about helping Korean hospitals advance into foreign countries and attract foreign patients to Korea. This bill also took years to get Assembly endorsement. If hospitals attract more foreign patients, they would be able to create a large number of high-quality jobs.
There are still other reform bills that wait for Assembly approval, including one on fostering service industries and those related to labor reforms.
The two parties need to cooperate to pass as many bills as possible during the remainder of the Assembly session. If more time is needed for deliberations, they can hold an extraordinary parliamentary session.
