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The ruling party refuses to accept the president's advice to agree to a revision of a new private school law that has met with widespread public condemnation. "Given the structure of the National Assembly, we can¡¯t administer the state by majority vote only. It's high time the ruling party acted responsibly and made a concession," the president told the ruling and opposition floor leaders. It was a suggestion for the ruling party to accept opposition proposals for an amendment, but the ruling party in an emergency caucus Saturday evening rejected the presidential advice on grounds that the compromise proposed by the Grand National Party ¡°undermines the basic spirit of revising the private school law."
That is not reasoning, it is an arm-wrestling contest with the opposition. As one ruling-party lawmaker put it, ¡°If we revised the law, it would be tantamount to handing over the rabbit" -- referring to its core supporters -- "to the poachers" of the GNP. There have been no explanations from the Uri Party what specific evils would befall on national education if the controversial law is revised.
No one in the ruling party is more loath to make concessions under pressure than the chief executive. Yet even he found it necessary to intervene when he saw the government deadlocked in the legislature over the revision. The only way to break the deadlock, as the president says, is for the ruling party to make a concession. That is a basic rule of politics. The governing party should blame itself for failing to come to that conclusion long before the president gave his advice, but instead it perversely clings to the "conviction" that the president's remarks are wrong and it is right.
Never once in all the strange political hares the president has at one time or another started has the ruling party stood on its conviction. The Uri Party wanted to revise the controversial National Security Law because public sentiment was overwhelmingly against scrapping it. As soon as the president declared that the law "should be put in a museum," the party fell in line and now wants it abolished. When the president insisted on calling for a grand coalition in the face of massive public opposition, the ruling party made a great show of supporting the plan by setting up committees left, right and center. Yet now, when the president at long last makes a remark that bespeaks a sense of responsibility, it decides to stand up to him. It is highly peculiar.
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