There are a hundred days left until the regional elections slated for May 31. They will be the fifth round of elections for non-national legislatures and city councils, and the fourth for heads of regional governments. At this point you would expect to see local government by the people for the local people, but in fact the opposite is true. Authority ceded by the national government has been overtaken by powerful local interests and political forces.
The result of that has been indiscriminate development, environmental destruction, and ethical problems such as the handing out of special positions and contracts. The evidence can be found in the Board of Audit and Inspection's (BAI) audit of regional government affairs on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the start of locally elected heads of government. It found 787 cases of abuse of personnel nominating authority and improperly awarded contracts, and it issued 392 official warnings. Some 165 local government projects had to be canceled or suspended, and the problems have led to losses in W420.9 billion.
Various preventive measures have been put in place ahead of the elections. Legislators are going to be given real salaries, parties will be allowed to run their own candidate selection primaries if they want to, and the introduction of "middle constituency electoral districts." There is also a new allotted female proportional representation system in place. The idea was probably to stop the domination of local interest groups and encourage the entrance of moral and capable individuals into politics.
The problem is that the workings of local autonomy are becoming part of national politics. Salaries for local legislators and primaries give those in national politics more control over regional officials. The two major political parties have in most places chosen to have local electoral districts be "two seats per district," and in doing so have given them a firmer monopoly. The negative side effect has been a lot of corruption in the primaries. Regional elections have turned into a preliminary skirmish for the presidential election coming in two years. Already the mood is overheated and corrupt with parties giving away of financial gifts and forms of entertainment, and each locality is suffering from division along party lines.
Grassroots democracy is still just taking root. The ill effects of the political nationalization of regional autonomy and the way the elections are becoming part of the overall presidential campaign are clear. The problem is that you cannot expect the parties to clean up their behavior by themselves. The only people left to trust are the voters. Only voters can prevent corruption in the primaries and the overheating. A new era for the provinces can be begun if people choose true representatives to work for them. We hope to see a "third wind" from voters this time.
The Hankyoreh, 20 February 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Hoping for Another Voter Revolution |
