[FOUNTAIN]Trust starts healthy, firm relationships

This year, the politicians have created a destructive vortex by denying the existence of others. They not only rejected ideologies and policies but every characteristic and quality of those different from themselves. Through rejection, they seemed to be straining to confirm their own existence.
By rejecting the existence of the president, the opposition party passed an impeachment bill. The ruling party denied the existence of the Constitutional Court when it ruled the capital relocation plan unconstitutional. Prime Minister Lee Hai-chan openly expressed doubts over the reason for the existence of the Grand National Party. The Grand National Party desperately sought its identity by accusing Uri Party Representative Lee Chul-woo of being a North Korean spy without concrete evidence. In the National Assembly’s sauna, the naked ruling and opposition lawmakers hang out separately.
At the Korea Legislative Studies Institute’s forum on Dec. 21, Lee Jong-kul, the vice-floor leader of Uri Party, said, “The majority of ruling party lawmakers see the Grand National Party as a political party that had surrendered to the Gangnam region in Seoul and the Gyeongsong region, the remnants of the conservative, corrupt and autocratic regimes. The Grand National Party thinks that the ruling party lawmakers are amateurs with no ability and experience or understanding of the mainstream.”
Amid the collision of existences, we saw a small miracle. A few days ago, political leaders Lee Bu-young, Park Geun-hye, Chun Jung-bae and Kim Deog-ryong had a six-and-a-half hour meeting and normalized the crippled operation of the National Assembly. Albeit unstable, the memory of the meeting and coexistence can serve as soil to grow a small miracle. Grand National Party floor leader Kim said, “The ruling party began to understand the opposition to some degree, and the opposition came to believe in the ruling party.” Understanding and believing are the beginning of a trusting relationship.
In the decade-long rivalry, the politicians started to resemble one another, and as soon as they reject the quality of the other, their own identity can be denied at the same time.
Let’s hope that the miracle the ruling and opposition leaders brought before Christmas can spread to everyone involved in politics.

by Chun Young-gi

The writer is a deputy political news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.