The ruling Uri Party has submitted to the National Assembly a new bill about an "administrative city," in place of an "administrative capital," though lacking the key elements in the initial legislation. One hopes that this will be an opportunity to for vigorous discussion between the ruling and opposition parties.
While it does not look good for the ruling party to submit a bill entirely on its own, but the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) is largely to blame for the situation being what it is. Using the fact the government and ruling party disclosed its proposal on an "administrative city" ahead of time as its excuse, the GNP has been essentially refusing to participate in the special subcommittee on the matter that the National Assembly has held several times since the middle of last month. That kind of attitude is hard to understand.
If you have differing opinion, the way to make your views known would be to go to the committee and figure things out in a rational manner. That is why the committee was created in the first place. The biggest area of disagreement is the question of what government ministries and agencies would be included in the move, but since both sides are in agreement in at least the principle of constructing an "administrative city," compromise will not be impossible. It does not look like the effectiveness each other's plans will be much different just because the number of ministries each party thinks should be moved is different. It is hard to have to look at them arguing over the timing that construction would begin and making connections to the 2007 presidential election. Each party should think less of their differences and think first of the people, who are disgusted with the endless wasteful exchanges.
The cause regionally balanced national land development and measures to fight over-concentration in the greater Seoul region are not things about which one can take one's time on. Over the past 35 years Korea's population has grown by 16 million, with 14 million, or 85 percent, concentrated in the Seoul region. That's not surprising, that's scary. If the trend is not turned around the Seoul region, and not just the provinces, will quite likely suffer decline. Once it is clear the construction of an "administrative city" will be major means of correcting the problem, there is no reason to drag things on.
Whatever the endeavor, if you miss the right timing the effect is only half of what was desired and the negative side effects increase, and that is even truer when a national project that affects the whole country. We hope to see the ruling and opposition parties speed up their discussion and make the bill substantial in ways it should be, so that the "administrative city" issue is not linked to the individual interest of any one politician or political agenda.
The Hankyoreh, 7 February 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Go Faster on 'Administrative City' |
