[Insight & Opinion] The Path to Restoring Dignity in a Distrusted National Assembly

Recently, there has been frequent media coverage of lawmakers displaying behavior that makes people frown. While such incidents have occurred in the past, they are now repeated without any sense of shame. There are even cases that provoke public outrage. Lawmakers were once referred to as “Seonryang,” a term that implied they were outstanding individuals representing the people. Of course, that was more of a hopeful ideal. In reality, the National Assembly has always been the least trusted among state institutions, and satisfaction with it has consistently fallen short. Above all, the recent rise of unrestrained and unruly politics is a serious problem.

Distrust in the National Assembly is essentially distrust in the party politics that dominate Korea’s parliamentary system. The Assembly has become a stage for proxy battles between political parties, rather than a forum for collecting and reflecting public opinion. Lawmakers pledge to faithfully perform their duties in accordance with their conscience, prioritizing the national interest (as stated in Article 24 of the National Assembly Act), and the law stipulates that they should vote according to their conscience, independent of party directives. However, in practice, party interests take precedence, and lawmakers are pressured to vote in line with party policy under the slogan of “party first, personal interests later.” These parties have become almost like pseudo-religious groups, and the sight of politicians leading this trend has become routine in today’s Korean politics.

As political parties have taken on the characteristics of pseudo-religious groups, their ability to self-purify and engage in self-reflection has all but disappeared. Dissent against those in power is regarded as blasphemy. Instead of lawmakers who demonstrate dignity in politics, “Red Guard” politicians now take center stage in party politics. In fact, the atmosphere of “Red Guard politics” was already evident in the candidate selection process for the 21st general election. The decline in individual lawmakers’ dignity during the 21st National Assembly was notable. In Korea’s parliamentary system, where the Assembly has become a proxy battlefield for party politics, the negative effects of this “Red Guard-style” party politics have been directly reflected in the National Assembly.

Rather than a parliament that reflects the universal demands of the people and fosters healthy competition, it has become a battleground for defeating the opposing camp. Public trust, which was always at the bottom, has fallen even further. According to national institution evaluation data released by Statistics Korea last year, trust in the National Assembly was the lowest at 24%. This was more than 20 percentage points lower than trust in the prosecution and the courts, which stood at 45?47%. The level of distrust is overwhelming. In an NBS survey conducted in December last year, trust in the National Assembly was reported at just 15%.

The root of the problem lies in the limitations of the current presidential system, which creates a structure where the Assembly is subordinated to the president. However, pseudo-religious, shamanistic party politics have made matters even worse. In the past, there were at least superficial mechanisms to feel shame and exercise restraint when lawmakers behaved in ways that undermined their dignity. Senior politicians sometimes served as a centripetal force for such restraint. Nowadays, however, some senior politicians are at the forefront, encouraging and leading the “Red Guards.” The reform-minded spirit once displayed by first-term lawmakers is now rarely seen. The few reform demands that do arise are suppressed by pseudo-religious fanaticism. Some first-term lawmakers who do speak out often make gaffes or behave inappropriately, further diminishing the dignity of their parties and of Korean politics as a whole.

In today’s representative democracy, lawmakers do not necessarily have to be “Seonryang”?the outstanding scholars once chosen by kings. However, it is dangerous for those lacking morality to wield power. Those who represent the people must not embarrass the public with their lack of dignity. Above all, I want to emphasize that the essential role of a lawmaker is not to be a member of a party cartel, but to serve as a constitutional representative of the people and the national interest.

Kim Manheum, Former Chief of the National Assembly Research Service