Do or die time for legislators

All politicians who met with their constituents during the Lunar New Year holiday heard the same thing - disappointment. The politicians had been fighting over the Sejong City issue, putting the people’s livelihood aside because they believe the nation depends upon it, but the people think the most important thing is making ends meet.

Furthermore, apparently there are not that many people who know the details of the Sejong City problem. In other words, the political strife has not reflected the people’s opinion but rather political interests.

Things cannot continue this way. Lawmakers must reach a conclusion quickly and focus their efforts on more practical matters. In order to do this, politicians need to talk to each other with sincerity. Problems will not be solved by picking on the words of others and making anonymous attacks. This only adds political mistrust.

The last hope is President Lee Myung-bak and former Grand National Party Chairwoman Park Geun-hye meeting with one another to resolve the present deadlock personally. If the problem still cannot be resolved even after that, we would rather skip it. No matter what the conclusion may be, this ridiculous situation cannot drag on any longer.

The most frequent complaint to both government and opposition party lawmakers is that it is hard to make ends meet. People are suffering from joblessness, an economic slowdown and unstable economic fundamentals. Even ruling party lawmakers confessed that this Lunar New Year was the worst ever for the real economy.

Nuclear power plant exports and the G-20 Summit meeting have not had a tangible effect on the lives of the public. Nevertheless, the lawmakers at the National Assembly are still busy slinging mud at each other, putting aside handling bills for the public welfare.

This is why it is imperative to finish off the Sejong City issue, which has aroused all this unnecessary fuss.

Important political events are coming up throughout this year.

There are the local government elections on June 2, the National Assembly by-elections in July, and the ruling and opposition party conventions in August.

There is a high risk of excessive political attacks rather than problems being solved during this period.

Lawmakers are relaying the public sentiment that people will not stand by and watch the National Assembly idling. If politicians ignore this sentiment and continue to act as if nothing happened, the public will have no choice but to pass a sentence at the ballot box.