(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on July 29)

Presidential Pardon: Rule of Law: Most Misunderstood Concept in Korea

Few three words have been used ??? or misused ??? more frequently by this
administration than ``rule of law.''

``Anyone who violates the law, including myself, must be punished without
exception,'' President Lee Myung-bak said in an address celebrating Liberation
Day last year. In Monday's radio talk, however, Lee said he plans to grant
special pardons to about 1.5 million lawbreakers, mostly traffic offenders, on
the same day this year.
It would be too harsh to take issue with the President being a little generous
with the grassroots, especially because the clemency is strictly aimed at people
who drive vehicles as a means of living, while excluding all political and
economic criminals. Nor is the Lee administration the first to provide blanket
amnesty on national holidays.
Still, what has now become an annual event leaves much room to ponder about some
aspects of the legal system and its administration in this country. Records show
that traffic accidents used to soar by up to 15 percent in the wake of such
massive remissions, which apparently work to loosen people's attentiveness at the
wheel. Even without citing numerous reports on horrible mishaps caused by drowsy
truck drivers and drunk-drivers, the periodic pardons forces one to question the
overall effectiveness of the nation's traffic administration, its rules and
punishment, while causing serious inequity with law-abiding motorists.
Yet President Lee revealed a far more serious misconception about law observance
during the radio address in his comments on the recent passage of the media bills
at the National Assembly. All but defending the governing party's railroading of
the controversial bills, saying, ``It would have been better if the Assembly
reached an agreement, but the bills couldn't wait any longer.''
These ends-justify-means remarks should not have come from the top leader,
especially at a time when the parliament is still embroiled in a dispute over the
procedural legitimacy of the vote due to alleged proxy balloting. We have been
discussing and will continue to discuss the contents of the bills on other
occasions, but would remind here that the judicial branch, while ruling on the
railroad workers' strike in 2003, decided that ``labor unions' strikes are
unlawful if there are procedural problems, regardless of their purposes.''
Come to think of it, however, it has been quite a long time now that people have
seen laws broken by those who make and administer them. Cheong Wa Dae itself has
ignored popular calls for investigating the numerous irregularities allegedly
made by many people mistakenly appointed to important posts by President Lee
Myung-bak, asking, ``Who is faultless?'' No wonder people sneer at laws in Korea
as no longer iron net but spider's web ??? in which only the powerless are
caught.
It's sad to think how the rule of law, which is distinguished from ``rule by
men'' by curbing the authoritarian excess of the ruling elite, has come to be
used here by the government to force the people to obey to whatever it decides.
Which is why at least the judicial branch should remain independent from the
political group in power. People would watch attentively at how the
Constitutional Court rules on the bills' tumultuous legislation.
(END)