[EDITORIALS]Get to work, prosecutors

It is an obvious decision for the prosecutors to investigate illegal political funds of all parties. The investigation will not only end the bickering among political parties but end the link between politics and business.
We request the prosecutors to conduct a fair and scrupulous investigation. The prosecutors must thoroughly uncover all the secrets of the political funding of President Roh Moo-hyun and the Grand National Party’s presidential candidate, Lee Hoi-chang. The prosecution must not try to cover up the scandals of the ruling party in consideration of the incumbent president, and it should not try to end the investigation loosely after submitting to pressure and protests from the opposing political parties. The prosecution should keep in mind that if the investigators take side and attempt to reach a compromise, they would lose the public’s faith.
The prosecutors’ investigation should provide grounds for political reform where politics is possible only with legal funding, instead of bestowing an acquittal on illegal political funding. The people no longer believe the words of political parties that promise they no longer will receive money from business every time a scandal breaks out. The investigation should provide a basis for systemic reform by clearing up the methods, size and organization of illegal funds.
There are examples in the Italian and Japanese prosecutors who contributed to their countries’ political reforms in the early 1990s. The Italian prosecution investigation of 3,000 politicians, including the prime minister and businessmen, resulted in 1,000 convictions. The special task force of prosecutors in Tokyo, Japan, grilled the ruling party’s vice president.
Because the prosecution says it will take the current economic situation into account, companies should do their utmost to cooperate with the investigation. There should be no discrimination, falsification or coverup in the prosecution’s investigation. If there are, the only solution would be to name a special prosecutor. The prosecution should not quaver before political power and should uncover the scandal for the people.