S. Korean parliament rejects PM

In the second of several articles on Kim Dae-jung's accession to the presidency of South Korea, Jakarta Post Asia correspondent Harvey Stockwin analyses the setback which faced Kim on his very first day in office, as the former ruling majority adopted obstructionist tactics.

HONG KONG (JP): No sooner was Kim Dae-jung sworn as the first ever opposition leader to be elected South Korean president, and the old ruling majority in the Korean National Assembly treated President Kim as if he was still out of power and in opposition -- by denying him his chosen prime minister.

The expectation must be that this will be but a brief hiccup in an otherwise smooth transition. But if it is an indication of increased political in-fighting, with the parliamentary majority refusing to accept that it is now the opposition, then South Korea's economic troubles could increase -- just when they seem likely to slowly diminish.

The parliamentary maneuver came hours after Kim had been sworn in and had delivered an inaugural address in which he appealed for national political unity with which to meet the ongoing economic crisis.

As he frankly described the depth of the crisis facing the nation -- "it is a stupefying situation we find ourselves in" -- President Kim "earnestly appealed to the opposition, which is the majority party in the National Assembly: we will never be able to overcome today's crisis without cooperation from you. I will consult you on all issues. You, in return, must help me if only for one year -- this year -- when the nation is standing on the brink of disaster. I believe my wishes are shared by all the citizens".

The very strength of this appeal turned subsequent maneuvers by the former ruling majority into a stinging inaugural day defeat.

The parliamentary line-up, as a result of a general election in 1996, saw the New Korea Party (as it then was) returned with more than half the parliamentary seats. Parliamentary and presidential elections in South Korea are not synchronized, so that parliamentary majority stays in place, even as President Kim Dae-jung takes control of the government.

When he entered his office in the presidential residence the Blue House at 9 a.m. on Feb. 25, Kim's first formal item of business was to sign a document appointing his coalition partner Kim Jong-pil as prime minister. The appointment has to be ratified by parliament.

But the former ruling majority in the National Assembly -- which changed its label to Grand National Party (GNP) just before last year's presidential election -- boycotted the Wednesday session thereby refusing to move on the appointment resolution. The GNP currently controls 161 out of 299 seats, whereas Kim's National Congress for New Politics (NCNP) and Kim Jong-pil's United Liberal Democrats (ULD) control 121 seats between them.

Since the NCNP-ULD coalition was expected to attract the support of 12 independents, this left the new government requiring around 14 defectors in order to confirm Kim Jong-pil as prime minister.

Conceivably, the GNP adopted the tactic of boycott precisely because they feared that the two Kims had already won over enough defectors.

Ostensibly the GNP objects to Kim Jong-pil as prime minister saying that he is insufficiently experienced in economics. Coming from a party which symbolically adopted the name GNP just as South Korea's economic GNP was entering into steep decline as a result of currency depreciation, this was a rather dubious conclusion.

The real political motive behind the maneuver seems to be to force Kim Dae-jung to change his prime minister, thereby splitting the new ruling NCNP-ULD coalition minority before it even starts to govern. If any political principles were at work, then the GNP should welcome Kim Jong-pil since he is right-of- center in the political spectrum, just like the GNP. The GNP majority, having backed authoritarian rule for many years is scarcely in a position to question Kim Jong-pil's past authoritarian tendencies (JP, as he is known, helped Park Chung Hee mount the 1961 coup against the old post-Korean War democracy).

The GNP maneuver comes as an immediate setback for President Kim and, even more, important, as a setback for the country at a time when it badly needs the national unity for which Kim argued eloquently in his inaugural address.

The setback in turn illustrates and emphasizes another pledge in Kim's inaugural when he stressed that "political reform must precede everything else. Participatory democracy must be put into practice: the people must be respected as masters. Only then can national administration become transparent, and corruption disappear". Kim said nothing in his speech about changing the constitution, though he almost certainly has such reform in mind.

The need for reform is born out by this setback. On the one hand, until the National Assembly decides the issue, the prime minister appointed by outgoing President Kim Young-sam remains in office. President Kim Dae-jung and his prime minister cannot appoint their cabinet ministers.

On the other hand, the Korean president evidently does not have the constitutional power to dissolve parliament, and seek to convert his parliamentary minority into a majority. So while Kim -- whose approval ratings now hover around 90 percent -- could remind the opposition majority that the people expect crisis cooperation, he has no dissolution threat with which to back it up.

As was to be expected, President Kim stressed the twin importance of democracy and market economics going hand in hand during his inaugural speech. But immediately he has been presented with a democratic knot which he must unravel if the markets are not move against Korea again. As a pointed reminder that too much political in-fighting could be dangerous, immediately after the setback over the Prime Ministerial appointment, the South Korean stock market index fell four and a half percent.