[EDITORIALS]Unworkable Political Alliance

The representatives of the Millennium Democratic Party, the United Liberal Democrats and the Democratic People's Party met Monday and officially declared a three-party policy alliance. We hope that they will wrap up reform and start another economic leap as they said in their joint announcement. However, we are truly concerned because immorality and ideological confusion deriving from their collusion are likely to lead politics into more conflict and confrontation. To start with, the faces of their representatives do not inspire confidence. The MDP chairman, Kim Joong-kwon, the ULD acting president, Kim Chong-hoh, and the DPP chairman, Kim Yoon-hwan, have been key players in ruling party politics since the early 1980s. It is a historical irony that such figures get together and talk about reform.

Another problem is that their ideological spectrum is too wide. Whether the ULD, a party that is ridiculed as the old guard, can become a true partner of a progressive party, the MDP, is questionable. They are encouraged to be oblivious to any ideological gap by lucrative positions and interests, but we worry about the side effects of their alliance. Coalition governments are common in Western nations with a parliamentary system, but they are alliances between parties with similar ideologies. Of course, we cannot blame a party for being eager to hold onto power. However, to ignore party platforms for trifle factional interests is an act that undermines the very foundation of the party's existence. Furthermore, the joint announcement seems to herald the politics of strength based on superiority in numbers. They say they will pass the amendment to the National Assembly Law "according to the principle of the parliamentary system" to set the quorum of a negotiation body at 14. Since the Grand National Party believes the ruling party will attempt to split the opposition based on a majority secured by the alliance, a clash between the ruling and the opposition seems inevitable. When will the ruling party stop resorting to politics of numbers? If it continues to push ahead what little justification the coalition has will collapse.