(News Focus) Political wrangling hampers efforts to overcome economic crisis

By Yoo Cheong-mo
SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Yonhap) -- Prolonged political wrangling between South Korea's
rival parties is severely hindering the government's desperate moves to cope with
the deepening financial crisis at home and abroad.
The incumbent parliament elected in the April general elections opened its first
regular session exactly three months ago, but has yet to produce any tangible
legislative outcomes, adding to mounting public concern over an imminent economic
recession.
Even worse, the National Assembly is likely to miss the Constitution-set deadline
of Dec. 2 for parliamentary approval of next year's government budget as rival
parties have clashed over the scope of tax cuts and expenditure increases, as
well as the definition of "fiscal soundness."
The long-delayed parliamentary approval of the 2009 budget bill is feared to
seriously hamper the efforts of the President Lee Myung-bak government to
implement economic stimulus measures designed to fight the economic crisis.
Losing patience with the parliamentary inaction, President Lee issued a warning
last week, saying, "Losing an opportunity is worse than a policy failure."
"I urge the National Assembly to ratify the budget bill as soon as possible, so
the government can enforce extraordinary (stimulus) measures to revitalize the
economy. The timing and speed (of the budget spending) are particularly important
in order to stimulate the economy and boost consumption," said the president in
his meeting with Assembly leaders on Friday.
Due to the protracted parliamentary paralysis, mountains of economically urgent
bills are still pending in the Assembly.
Since the inauguration of the incumbent parliament in June, a total of 2,787
bills have been submitted to the Assembly, but only nine of them have been
approved. Of the bills, 1,982 were submitted during the current regular session
that began in September.
The pending bills included the government's plan to reduce real estate, income,
corporate and inheritance taxes, as well as the government's attempt to
strengthen the protection of communications secrets and penalize Internet users
who verbally attack others in cyberspace.
Even worse, hundreds of bills meant to improve the livelihood of citizens and
expand social safety nets have remained idle in parliament.
In early November, the Lee government submitted a revised 2009 budget plan
calling for increasing its fiscal spending by over 10 percent from this year to
283 trillion won (US$193.2 billion).
But the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) and the main opposition Democratic
Party (DP) are still deadlocked over the details of next year's budget bill.
The GNP has vowed to ratify the budget bill before the end of the current regular
session in early December, saying time is running out to make sweeping tax cuts
and fiscal spending increases.
But the DP has refused to cooperate, saying a combination of planned tax cuts and
increased expenditures would worsen the government's fiscal soundness. The
opposition party is also demanding a close examination of the revised budget
bill, insisting the government's planned tax cuts are mostly intended to benefit
the rich.
The rival parties are also at odds over parliamentary approval of the South
Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and the method of investigation into people who
illegally received state rice farming subsidies.
President Lee last week vowed to resolve the political disputes through dialogue
with opposition leaders, stressing that he is willing to sacrifice himself to
pave the ground for the nation's advancement.
But DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun immediately turned down the president's invitation
to meet over the economic crisis.
"The regular parliamentary session is set to end on Dec. 9, but mountains of
economically sensitive bills have been sidelined due to protracted political
wrangling between the ruling and opposition parties," said a civic activist at
the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ).
"A bipartisan cooperation is acutely needed in order for the nation to address
the unprecedented economic crisis. Regrettably, however, the Assembly has been
stuck in a state of near-paralysis for months."
The CCEJ has recently come up with a list of 22 priority bills that have to pass
in parliament, including measures to improve social safety nets, streamline real
estate and corporate taxes, reinforce fair trade regulations, accelerate
deregulation in the financial sector, heighten ethical standards of civil
servants, strengthen the rule of law and rationalize trade negotiations with
foreign countries.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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