[Insight & Opinion] Political Parties Must Begin with Apology and Reflection for the 21st National Assembly

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With the April general election less than a month away, each political party's candidate selection is entering its final stages, and the nominated candidates are fervently appealing to voters for support. However, regrettably, it already seems difficult to expect that the 22nd National Assembly, to be formed through the April election, will meet the public's expectations with new politics.

The 21st National Assembly received a total of 26,620 legislative bill proposals by the end of February, of which 38%, or 10,098 bills, were processed, while 16,522 remain pending. Notably, while the Moon Jae-in administration saw a 61% passage rate of government-submitted bills in the National Assembly, the passage rate for bills submitted by the Yoon Seok-yeol administration over the past two years was only 29%. This starkly illustrates how the 21st National Assembly failed to fulfill its role as a legislative body. Moreover, how did the 21st National Assembly handle urgent pension, labor, and education reforms, which are critical for the long-term future of the Republic of Korea?

In short, the 21st National Assembly ended in factional politics. The major opposition party used its majority power to paralyze the government, to which the president responded with nine vetoes. President Yoon mentioned in his New Year's address that "I will definitely break up the factional cartels based on their own interests and ideologies," which was summarized in this election as the ‘cleansing of the activist faction’ theory, but the opposition party is appealing to voters with the ‘judgment on the regime’ theory. In other words, the ruling party is asking for power to become the majority in this election to properly carry out state affairs, while the opposition party is appealing for support to maintain its strength to block the arrogant governance of the Yoon administration. Both parties are half right and half wrong.

First, the ruling party should reflect on the policies pursued by the Yoon administration. Promoting sound fiscal management, drastically cutting the science and technology budget, expanding Seoul, increasing medical school admissions by 2,000 students, and so on. All were hastily and unilaterally pushed, causing problems. In particular, the 15% cut in the science and technology budget inflicted irreparable damage on the scientific community. Despite the need for medical reform, the policy maturation process, including gathering opinions, was insufficient, and the coercive expansion of medical school admissions is causing endless suffering for the public. How much more unilateral policy implementation will occur to make life harder if the ruling party gains a majority and controls the National Assembly?

On the other hand, what about the major opposition party? Aside from obstructing government policy and protecting its party leader from the judiciary, what contributions have they made to governance for the people's livelihood? Yet, do they intend to maintain their position as the major opposition party and continue to obstruct the remaining three years of the current administration as their achievement?

If both ruling and opposition parties appeal to the public solely for electoral victory without reflection or apology for the operation of the 21st National Assembly, from April 11, the public will once again be discarded, and regardless of which party becomes the majority in the 22nd National Assembly, there is a high possibility of another life-or-death factional fight. Moreover, haven’t they already prepared for battle by even establishing satellite parties to increase their factions?

The shameless political behavior of demanding support again from the public without a sincere apology and reflection on the 21st National Assembly’s failures already suggests the risk of repeating the factional politics seen in the 21st National Assembly in the 22nd National Assembly. Therefore, before debating whether the cleansing of the activist faction theory or the judgment on the regime theory is right or wrong, political parties should first apologize and reflect on the failures of the 21st National Assembly. Then, beyond factional politics, they should pledge to the public to stake their political lives on fulfilling the historic responsibility of the 22nd National Assembly.

Kim Dong-won, Former Visiting Professor at Korea University

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