ID :
188611
Wed, 06/15/2011 - 02:22
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/188611
The shortlink copeid
Interparty summit
President Lee Myung-bak will likely meet with Democratic Party Chairman Sohn Hak-kyu this month. It is rather astonishing the top leaders of the ruling and opposition camps have not met for nearly three years, and yet the nation???s politics still seems to roll on, however pitiably.
The reason for such mutual distancing is both institutional and personal. Korea???s imperial presidency always puts the chief executive one level higher than party leaders, and President Lee is famous, or infamous, for his hatred of partisan politics.
So the President???s ready acceptance of Rep. Sohn???s call for a one-on-one meeting to discuss urgent problems, including bread-and-butter issues of people???s livelihood, is a welcome, if belated, turnaround.
The two leaders have little to lose from the interparty summit. President Lee, with just one-and-a-half years left in his tenure, has begun to feel what a lame duck is. A meeting with a strong presidential contender, following one with Rep. Park Geun-hye of his own party recently, would help to buttress Lee???s waning influence. Rep. Sohn can also firm up his position as an opposition standard-bearer.
If something goes awry, they only have each other to blame, as has been the case with most such get-togethers in the past.
We hope they would know, and act, far better than this, and rise above such shallow political calculations this time around. At stake is nothing less than the everyday lives of numerous ordinary Koreans, reeling under soaring inflation, especially rocketing tuition fees, snowballing household debt and even the potential loss of hard-earned money deposited at mutual savings banks because of immoral managers. Public sentiment is rapidly approaching boiling point.
It is this tremendous weight of issues that might scuttle the Lee-Sohn meeting at the last moment if their aides fail to agree on specific items to discuss. The chances of dissipated talks would grow even bigger if the opposition calls for tabling political and social issues, such as the aborted judicial reform and fractured inter-Korean relationship.
We believe Cheong Wa Dae should be bolder and more generous in selecting topics. People would think it better to put all the issues on the table even if that leads only to the confirmation of differences in some instead of avoiding tricky ones or even letting them thwart the meeting itself.
Needless to say, politics is an art of compromise. What voters want to see is the two leaders doing their best for the best interests of the people by meeting each other half way, even if they fail to produce many satisfactory results on the spot. The opposite scenario will be fleshed out if the two won???t budge from their present positions and blame each other for the talks??? collapse.
Both can become winners if they can show the people political leaders can also communicate on the basis of mutual trust and understanding, and for the common purpose of public welfare. If the proposed meeting ends up another fiasco, all will be losers, most notably the voters.
(END)
The reason for such mutual distancing is both institutional and personal. Korea???s imperial presidency always puts the chief executive one level higher than party leaders, and President Lee is famous, or infamous, for his hatred of partisan politics.
So the President???s ready acceptance of Rep. Sohn???s call for a one-on-one meeting to discuss urgent problems, including bread-and-butter issues of people???s livelihood, is a welcome, if belated, turnaround.
The two leaders have little to lose from the interparty summit. President Lee, with just one-and-a-half years left in his tenure, has begun to feel what a lame duck is. A meeting with a strong presidential contender, following one with Rep. Park Geun-hye of his own party recently, would help to buttress Lee???s waning influence. Rep. Sohn can also firm up his position as an opposition standard-bearer.
If something goes awry, they only have each other to blame, as has been the case with most such get-togethers in the past.
We hope they would know, and act, far better than this, and rise above such shallow political calculations this time around. At stake is nothing less than the everyday lives of numerous ordinary Koreans, reeling under soaring inflation, especially rocketing tuition fees, snowballing household debt and even the potential loss of hard-earned money deposited at mutual savings banks because of immoral managers. Public sentiment is rapidly approaching boiling point.
It is this tremendous weight of issues that might scuttle the Lee-Sohn meeting at the last moment if their aides fail to agree on specific items to discuss. The chances of dissipated talks would grow even bigger if the opposition calls for tabling political and social issues, such as the aborted judicial reform and fractured inter-Korean relationship.
We believe Cheong Wa Dae should be bolder and more generous in selecting topics. People would think it better to put all the issues on the table even if that leads only to the confirmation of differences in some instead of avoiding tricky ones or even letting them thwart the meeting itself.
Needless to say, politics is an art of compromise. What voters want to see is the two leaders doing their best for the best interests of the people by meeting each other half way, even if they fail to produce many satisfactory results on the spot. The opposite scenario will be fleshed out if the two won???t budge from their present positions and blame each other for the talks??? collapse.
Both can become winners if they can show the people political leaders can also communicate on the basis of mutual trust and understanding, and for the common purpose of public welfare. If the proposed meeting ends up another fiasco, all will be losers, most notably the voters.
(END)
