The National Assembly started an extraordinary session Tuesday, with an array of reform proposals and important bills awaiting legislative review.
Given the role of the parliament, each and every sitting should be important, but the monthlong session carries extra significance owing to the all-important reform proposals, not least those for the pension system for government employees and labor market.
The forthcoming month will determine the fate of the thorny reform issues, which will largely pave the way for the Park Geun-hye administration’s ambitious plans to reform the public sector and the education and financial sectors.
Besides the reform agendas, the Assembly is tasked with finding out what went wrong with the numerous overseas resources development projects during the Lee Myung-bak administration. Also awaiting parliamentary action are economy-related bills, including those for tourism promotion and services sector development. These are crucial for supporting the government’s endeavors to revive the economy.
Dealing with all these alone would be a tall order for the parliament, which is more used to confrontations than negotiations and compromises. But unfortunately, much of the extraordinary session coincides with the days when the rival parties will be preparing for the April 29 by-elections.
In addition, the upcoming anniversary of the sinking of the Sewol ferry could intensify partisan strife at any time. Issues surrounding the tragic disaster ― like compensation and the operation of the special investigation committee ― have already become hot political and social issues. On Monday, Park gave an apparent endorsement of the plan to haul up the sunken vessel, but this will not be enough to negate the flammability of the issue.
Certainly, the parliament cannot take any of these issues lightly, but the first and foremost job of the legislature in April should be the reform of the civil service pension plans.
We stress this because, as had been expected, the so-called Body for Grand Social Compromise failed to reach an agreement by the March 28 target date. Faced with public criticism, it decided to continue discussions by entrusting the task to a “working group.”
But the participants, notably the ruling and opposition parties and government workers’ unions, have not been able to agree even on whether the working group should set a deadline.
This deepens our belief that the body, despite its good intention of bringing the unions to the negotiation table, is unlikely to reach an agreement.
Therefore, it is obvious that both the government and the parliament should expedite their own work to meet the goal of legislating the pension reform proposal by early next month.
The special parliamentary committee, which extended its operation until May 2, should spearhead the work to draw up a pay-more, receive-less reform proposal so that the full Assembly can vote on its legislation May 6 ― the date agreed upon by the ruling and opposition parties.
Because of their very generous payments, the civil service pensions are soaking up about 10 billion won ($9 million) in taxpayers’ money every day. The nation cannot afford a further delay to remove the snowballing threat to fiscal stability.
It is usually futile to ask politicians to put national interests ahead of partisan concerns. And the major parties may regard the upcoming four by-elections as a bellwether for next year’s general election, which will in turn set the path for the 2017 presidential election.
But the parliamentary agenda, not least the pension reform plans, are too crucial to be swayed by the usual, mean partisan politics. The elections will select only four representatives whose term of office will end in about a year. Much more is at stake in the parliament’s reform business this month.
