In the Grand National Party, there are 33 lawmakers who have been elected for more than three terms. Among them, only Kim Yong-kap and Kim Kwang-won have announced they will not seek another term, but the remaining 31 are seeking the GNP nomination to run again. Most of them are key lawmakers in the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye factions, so most of them are highly likely to get their nomination.

A parliament needs multiple-term lawmakers. With their experience in politics and expertise in parliamentary affairs, such veteran lawmakers ensure that the legislative organs of the state keep the executive branch of government in check. Veteran lawmakers play a leading role in the parliaments of advanced countries.

But in Korea’s National Assembly, many veteran lawmakers have benefited without much effort simply due to the unique political landscape of the country, which has been divided by rivalry between the eastern and western regions. From the 13th general election in 1988 until the 17th, getting the nomination of the party in either the Gyeongsang or Jeolla regions meant an automatic seat in the National Assembly. In the GNP, 20 lawmakers, or 60 percent of all the party’s assemblymen who have served at least three terms in the National Assembly are based in the Gyeongsang region. And voters do not feel these people have demonstrated accomplishments commensurate with the number of years they have sat in the National Assembly.

Over the last four years, multiple-term lawmakers in the UNDP, which was the ruling party, simply sat and watched as around 100 left-leaning, first-time lawmakers from the party pushed through various controversial bills that rode roughshod over the wishes of the public. They stood by on the sidelines as the first-term assemblymen, who used to be leftwing activists, ignored the duties of lawmakers elected to the ruling party and interfered with government by opposing key policies such as Korea’s dispatch of troops to Iraq and the signing of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. Some multiple-term UNDP lawmakers even spearheaded the efforts.

Veteran lawmakers in the GNP, meanwhile, turned a blind eye when it came to the passage of undesirable laws, including those aimed at scrapping the National Security Law, revise Korea’s modern history, interfere in the operation of private schools, and to meddle in the operations of leading newspapers. In allowing these laws to be passed, the GNP effectively surrendered its duty as an opposition party. No wonder then that 82.6 percent of voters in a New Year’s survey by the Maeil Shinmun daily in the Daegu and North Gyeongsang regions want a new generation of lawmakers to represent them.

Four years ago, 27 GNP lawmakers from Gyeongsang constituencies who had served at least three terms in the National Assembly voluntarily gave up running in the general election. That decision saved the GNP and, most of all, saved their individual integrity. Veteran lawmakers should be able to make their own decision regarding their positions at the National Assembly before the public has to weigh their fates in the scale.