Ordinance revisions calling for electoral districts with four "basic legislators" to be broken into districts of two or three continue are being approved in the legislatures of provinces and independent cities all around the country. The original bill by the committee of non-government experts responsible for determining electoral districts originally included districts of four elected officials, but that clause is either being deleted completely or the number of elected officials is being reduced. If there are an increasing number of districts of two and three officials in Korea's climate of party-centered politics, it is all to obvious that the ruling Uri Party and the main opposition Grand National Party will eat up all the available positions. Of the country's sixteen provinces and independent cities only two places, Daejeon and Gwangju, have approved the proposed ordinance in its original form, so as for the other fourteen it was like having a cat manage the fish store.
The GNP enjoys absolute supremacy in the Yeongnam region, and it is making no secret of its motive, which is to seize every elected position available in the area. The city council in Busan called in the security guards while it passed an ordinance that partitions the city's districts, and in North Gyeongsang, provincial legislators belonging to the GNP forced a similar ordinance through at a special session held at a separate location. In Daegu, GNP city council members hoping to evade minority members who were holding a sit-in strike held a sudden raid on the main floor, using flashlights early Christmas Eve to pass their version. You almost feel sorry for them.
Uri is just as unprincipled. It opposed district partition in Busan, but in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and North Jeolla it has either participated in or tacitly approved of similar tactics. It has a two-faced attitude that seeks to agreeably divide up the spoils with the GNP in areas where they compete with each other, and then take everything in areas where it dominates.
All this goes against the goals everyone once had to make participation easier for political newcomers and minority parties. What it is going to do is make it easier for existing parties and powerful individuals in each locale to dominate the process, all while furthering a climate of regionalism. It is utterly shameless of both parties to be talking about grassroots democracy while dividing up the spoils from local legislature electoral districts, strategizing over what is available without announcing a formal party stance. They need to bring those ordinances under reconsideration and make them what they should be.
The Hankyoreh, 26 December 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Turning Against Grassroots Democracy |
