A majority party bent on waging war

After the majority Democratic Party (DP) unilaterally passed a motion to monopolize the chairmanships of 11 standing committees on Monday, the governing People Power Party (PPP) decided to boycott all legislative procedures in the 22nd National Assembly. The legislature is infamous for its never-ending battle against one another. This shameful portrait of the legislature makes us wonder if it really deserves respect from people.

In Monday’s negotiations over the chairmanships of the 11 committees, the PPP proposed that it will hand over 10 chairmanships to the majority party only if it yields the seat of the head of the mighty Legislation and Judiciary Committee to the PPP. The DP immediately refused even without going through a Supreme Council meeting. This shows that the party had no intention to negotiate from the beginning.

The DP claims that the tradition of compromise cannot prevail over public sentiment. And yet, the seat of speaker has been taken by the majority party and the chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee by the second largest party since the 17th Assembly in a show of co-governance.

The DP is a majority party, but would it do the same if it becomes a minority party? In the April 10 parliamentary elections, the DP took 175 seats and the PPP 108 seats. But in terms of voter turnouts across the country, the DP led by just 5.4 percentage points. Nevertheless, the DP distorted voter turnouts. Would DP leader Lee Jae-myung behave just like that if he is elected president in 2027?

Such aberrant operation of the legislature forces DP lawmakers to act abnormally. After the Suwon District Court on Monday delivered a jail sentence to Lee Hwa-young, the DP leader’s confidante, over his involvement in the suspicious remittance of money to North Korea when the DP leader was Gyeonggi governor, floor leader Park Chan-dae went on to insist that judges should be elected.

His remarks do not make sense at all. And yet, no self-criticism can be seen in the DP. The party leadership may gladly attribute it to the newfound unity after Lee’s methodically biased nominations in the last legislative election. But the DP must not forget that such unusual scenes will be remembered by voters.

While pushing for the chairmanships of the 11 standing committees, the DP leader vowed to speed up legislation just like the “Mongolian cavalry.” He made similar remarks during the last presidential election. At first glance, the power of the Mongol Empire seems to have originated with the cavalry’s uncontested maneuverability, but actually it came from the power to embrace others and flexibility. Lee must not forget that.