0315-A vegetable government

People are biggest victims of administrative vacuum

The Park Geun-hye administration has struck a rock even before it set to sea. On the surface, current partisan strife is due to a seemingly minor provision in the government restructuring bill. Beneath this, however, is the first skirmish over political hegemony, the result of which could tilt power balance between President Park and her political opponents over the next five years.

It is not certain who will win this initial war of nerves, but in the up-and-down world of politics, today’s victory is often tomorrow’s defeat, and vice versa. What’s certain is who the invariable losers of these political dogfights are: the people.

For now, Koreans are embarrassed by this unprecedented administrative vacuum gripping the new government. When their bewilderment turns to anger, the first target will likely be the unwieldy opposition parties.

And that must be what President Park had in mind when she read her first “statement to the people” at Cheong Wa Dae Monday, only her eighth day in office. “The National Assembly’s failure to pass a bill to retool the government is causing a serious bottleneck in state administration,” a stony-faced Park said in an angry voice. “We cannot start a new growth engine to revive economy, while losing opportunities to create good jobs.”

In theory, there is little wrong with what she said. But should this be the way the new chief executive handle national affairs in her first week in office? Park may, or may not, be able to win a parliamentary okay for the bill but if, and should, she resort to “direct appeals” to the people whenever opposition parties do what they are supposed to do _ “oppose” _ what role will the President and her party be left with? Most Koreans will shake their heads at the mere thought of such extreme partisan wrangling.

It seems as if Park, who spent most of her political career out of power, either as an opposition lawmaker or an “in-house oppositionist” in the Lee Myung-bak administration, has forgotten the natural role and situations of oppositionists as soon as she came to power little more than two months ago.

In her inaugural address, Park uttered the word “people” 50 times and “happiness” 20 times, vowing to do all she can “for” the people. What she never mentioned were such words as “democratic development” and “unity and harmony.”

To sum up, Park’s speech, which she reportedly wrote almost by herself, was asking the whole nation, including political opponents, to let her do her job, and help her, work for the people, instead of raising serious and prolonged objections.

But Koreans are living in a 21st-century democracy where the process and popular participation are as important as leaders’ good intentions and the end results of their policy. In relation to Abraham Lincoln’s famous definition of democracy, President Park seems to only think of “for the people,” while completely forgetting or ignoring “by the people.” But 48 percent of Koreans voted for opposition parties to speak and work on behalf of them in the last election.

Park must learn how to yield some and win more concessions. The sooner, the better.

This is The Korea Times editorial for Wednesday, March 6, 2013.