[EDITORIALS]Uri must yield

After the Uri Party went ahead and revised laws governing private schools, confrontation between the governing and opposition parties has gotten extreme. The Grand Nationals have decided to continue their political struggle outside the National Assembly, boycotting legislative sessions. The Uri Party plans to vote on bills by holding legislative sessions without the Grand Nationals. Both sides show no willingness to compromise. It is possible for the standstill to continue until local elections in May next year.
The Uri Party must act first to resolve this situation. The party has said it would pass next year’s budget bill, a plan to extend the deployment of Korean troops in Iraq and laws regarding real estate taxes. They say the matters can no longer wait. It is true that enormous problems will occur if those bills are not processed in time. If a new budget does not pass by the end of the year, the government will be forced to spend money from this year’s budget plan. If the dispatch mandate extension is not approved, Korean troops in Iraq will have no legal ground for their deployment.
And yet, the Uri Party is primarily responsible for postponing the passage of crucial bills this long. If the Assembly had passed the urgent laws before the Uri Party forced through the controversial private school law revision, the legislature would have seen no deadlock. It was the Uri Party that took the budget bill hostage in order to pass the private school law revision. Since passing the revision, however, the Uri Party and the Blue House have been criticizing the Grand Nationals for shunning urgent bills concerning the people’s livelihood. We can see through their intentions.
As the confrontation between the governing and opposition parties continue, the government and the Uri Party will eventually be blamed for poor governance. But it is the people who will suffer from the aftermath. To this end, the Uri Party has been too indifferent. They have been demanding the Grand Nationals to surrender, showing no efforts to persuade or have a dialogue.
This stalemate should not continue any longer. The one who tied the knot of trouble should untie it.
It is politicians’ role to mend conflicts and forge harmony. If it is impossible to scrap the revised private school law, the Uri Party must give some room for another revision, in order to persuade the Grand Nationals to return to the National Assembly. It is time for the Uri Party to save face for the Grand Nationals so they may rejoin the legislature.