South Korea’s main political parties on Friday struggled to finalize a previous deal on setting up three parliamentary panels, suggesting further wrangling in the coming parliamentary session later this month.
The governing Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy agreed Wednesday to create three panels. One will probe the Lee Myung-bak administration’s investments in energy projects abroad and two will continue talks on reforms to civil servants’ pensions.
But partisan bickering over the committees’ durations and other details threaten to derail the agreement.
Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Lee Wan-koo said the three committees’ durations should expire by the end of the next parliamentary session which begins on Monday. Lee also said reforms to government pensions must be legislated before year-end
The NPAD disagrees.
“Probes into past energy investments and reforms on civil servant pensions are different issues,” NPAD floor leader Rep. Woo Yoon-keun said in reference to former President Lee’s “resource diplomacy” initiative, suspected of having squandered trillions in taxpayer money.
“The investigations into past energy investments is not a subject of debate,” Woo said.
The probe is about holding past officials accountable for their actions, other NPAD officials have said.
“Reforming pensions to former government employees however, is a matter that deserves thorough debate and discussion,” Woo said.
The NPAD said lawmakers must continue debates over government proposals to revise the pensions up to next June.
President Park Geun-hye has vowed to change the pension system. The government has suggested giving smaller benefits to its pensioners, and compelling higher-earning bureaucrats to pay more into the pension fund.
The Saenuri Party is intent on pushing the bills through before next year as the NPAD is set to change its chairman and floor leader at a party convention on Feb. 8.
Saenuri officials fear the reshuffle in the main opposition will likely force lawmakers to re-negotiate the reforms, as the NPAD’s new leaders may demand a different agenda from their predecessors.
One analyst said the NPAD will likely continue to demand lengthy debates on the temporary parliamentary panels.
“From the NPAD’s perspective, the party cannot simply say yes to everything the Saenuri Party says about the pensions,” Myongji University professor Chung Jin-min said.
“The government employee union is a major voter base for the opposition.”
The Saenuri Party also demands widening parliamentary probes into the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, concerning past resource diplomacy efforts. Kim and Roh were members of political parties that the NPAD traces its history from.
“Pouring public money into energy investments abroad has been a continuing theme in past administrations for at least the past 14 years,” Saenuri Rep. Kweon Seong-dong told Yonhap News Agency. Kweon served as one of President Lee’s aides.
Limiting the probes to the Lee administration is a political move likely to frustrate the public, the lawmaker said.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
