&#91EDITORIALS&#93Affair shows lameness

The handling of the opposition’s demand for the dismissal of Kim Doo-gwan, the minister of government administration and home affairs, shows an utter lack of political savvy at the Blue House and in the National Assembly. There is not a shred of evidence that they are open to cooperation or compromise, and all they have is their own idiosyncratic logic, which is driving the situation to a bad conclusion. It is like two runaway trains on course for a head-on collision.
We do not need to see it to know what the passage of the resolution for Mr. Kim’s dismissal scheduled for today will bring. President Roh Moo-hyun will reject it, and the hard-won meeting by the president and the leaders of the three political parties scheduled for tomorrow will likely be called off. The opposition will step up the battle with the government, crying, “Don’t you look down on the National Assembly.” The Blue House will respond by charging that it is “tyranny by the majority opposition.” The emotional standoff will persist, while the public is left frustrated once again.
We have said it was not appropriate for the National Assembly to call for Mr. Kim’s dismissal for not preventing an intrusion by radical students into a U.S. military base. We suggest that the Grand National Party reconsider its plan and whether it is a responsible position for a responsible opposition to take. And the Millennium Democratic Party ought to look back on its conduct as the ruling party. It has been busy with infighting, neglecting the resolution for dismissal. It is pathetic that the only option it has is to ask the Blue House to exercise the veto.
And what has the government been doing all this time? To have neglected the issue for so long, only to say now that it does not understand the problem, gives the opposition little reason to want to put the issue to rest.
The Blue House and the National Assembly ought to be mediators of social conflict. For them to be insisting on their own unconvincing logic is clearly negligence. The Blue House and the National Assembly must show political leadership and compromise -- for the benefit of the public.