In a booklet full of campaign promises, Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang says he's going to "secure transparency in political funds by requiring financial intake and expenditures only through accounts registered with the National Election Commission," and then also "give the National Election Commission the authority to engage in criminal investigations, in order to reduce and make transparent all election funds." Now the Political Funds Law's revision bill, which is about nothing other than exactly what Lee is talking about, is being left unattended to because of disagreement within the same party. It's a strange contradiction when the candidate promises one thing, and party membership does something else.

You can't achieve political reform by talk alone. It's a play on words unless you follow it up with legislation. On Thursday the National Assembly passed a few things like the Economic Special Zone Law, but legislation relating to the anti-corruption committee, as well as revisions of the Election Law, Political Funds Law, Political Party Law, and National Assembly Law were left unfinished at what was the end of the session. Not only had parties still not resolved their differences when it came to bills relating to political reform, but the Speaker of the Assembly is traveling overseas, which became the excuse for the GNP not passing things on its own using its majority.

This all comes in large part because of the maneuvering related to the presidential election, including the Millennium Democratic Party’s business about passing the revised Election Law before everything else, this while starting up again on bills already agreed upon in the Special Committee on Political Reform. MDP presidential candidate Roh Moo-hyun is also promising transparency in political funds, so the responsibility for the situation is not something that can be laid entirely on one side of the playing field.

As the majority party, however, the GNP must bare more of the responsibility. One sees how hypocritical the politicians can be when more than two months ago the National Election Commission submitted revision proposals on the Election Law and the Political Funds Law, and yet Assembly members leave them untouched until it's too late. It's why we're seeing such a disparity between campaign promises and what actually gets legislated.

November 15, 2002