National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa delivered his New Year’s message in which he wished for harmony and for Korean society to overcome the hardships it is faced with.
Speaker Chung said, “The harder and more difficult the situation is getting, we have to be faithful to basics. People are the foundation of our National Assembly, so we have to overcome the current hardships.”
Chung proposed the catchphrase for the political arena in 2016 to be “hwauijeongsoo,” a Chinese saying that means “harmony is the prime goal of politics,” instead of the late renowned scholar Jeong Yak-yong of Joseon Dynasty, who advocated “sikuijeongsoo,” a Chinese saying that “people’s bread and butter is the premier goal of politics.”
Speaker Chung made the remarks at a ceremony to kick off the new business year at the National Assembly Building in Yeouido, Seoul, on Jan. 4. Among some 500 people on hand at the event were Secretary General Park Hyung-joon; Chief Librarian Lee Eun-cheol; Chief Kim Joon-gi of the National Assembly Budget Office; and Deputy Secretary General for Legislative Affairs Lim Sung-ho.
Looking back at 2015, Speaker Chung said the National Assembly has managed to pass the national budget bill on time for the second straight year, as required by law, and it demonstrated a ray of hope based on dialogue and compromise. Such major reform bills were approved as the so-called former “Rep. Kim Young-ran’s Law” designed to punish public office holders taking given amounts of money and gifts, regardless of their job performance, and an amendment to the Act on Public Officials’ Pension.
But Speaker Chung admitted, “Speaking honestly, all of us are a lot insufficient enough to restore people’s love and trust and address tasks of the times entrusted to us, and a regretful situation in which people’s distrust and criticisms toward the parliament is mounting still unfurls.”
He regretted that with not many days to go for the closing of the last extraordinary session of the 19th National Assembly convened in January, the National Assembly failed to act on major bills designed to rejuvenate the sagging economy, particularly to the extent the current National Assembly might be branded as “a disgraced parliament,” due to a failure to approve a bill to rezone constituencies on time as required by law.
“The reality of the National Assembly is that lawmakers resort to endless conflicts for their own partisan interests, not the parliament of harmony and public consensus I badly want, and I, as National Assembly Speaker, cannot repress bitterness and grief,” Chung lamented.
Chung urged the ruling and opposition parties to recognize and respect each other and demonstrate their wisdom and capacity to coordinate and iron out different views and conflicts to induce consensus in a rational fashion.
He hopes the upcoming 20th National Assembly will be filled with dialogue and conciliation that can ease social rows by lending an ear to people’s voices, not a hub of confrontation and conflict.
Chung called for his staff to devote themselves to making the year 2016 a significant year through changes and innovation.
In the meantime, ruling and opposition party leaders pledged to gain a victory in the general elections for the 20th National Assembly, which will be held less than four months from now.
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