"Women and Youth Join Innovation Committee? The Essence Is What Matters"
"Even as the Ruling Party, the National Assembly Must Check the Executive"
Former lawmaker Lee Eon-ju of the People Power Party criticized on the 27th that the In Yo-han Innovation Committee should advise President Yoon Seok-yeol to attend the 1st anniversary memorial ceremony of the October 29 Itaewon disaster, saying, "The Innovation Committee should start with what it can do immediately."
On the same day, Lee appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' and said, "The public thinks that a year has passed since the Itaewon disaster, but no one has taken responsibility," adding, "If I were the chairman of the Innovation Committee, I would have announced that I would attend the memorial ceremony."
He continued, "They should also tell the president to attend the memorial ceremony," and criticized, "The reason for visiting the May 18th cemetery is to honor that spirit. Although it is a somewhat different incident, if you say 'I won't go,' 'I won't communicate,' 'I can't embrace them,' or 'I can't be inclusive' regarding a disaster where multiple people lost their lives, then what is this?"
Regarding the In Yo-han Innovation Committee appointments announced the day before, he gave a score of 70. Lee said, "Putting forward faces and sending a message with that composition is not bad, but that is not the essence. That should be a plus alpha, but it can't be just that."
Lee emphasized, "The most important essence is that an accurate diagnosis of why the situation requiring innovation has come must come first," adding that for over a year and a half, the president has been conducting state affairs too far removed from public sentiment, and this has accumulated not just once or twice. During that accumulation, public opinion was very unfavorable."
He added, "Then the party should have spoken up and shown some efforts to correct that, but that never happened. Instead, they followed more, suppressed the media, or even acted like Red Guards at times," and said, "The public thought, 'No matter how much we speak, it doesn't work,' 'They just treat us like fools, the people.' Isn't that why they judged them? Then what is party reform? It is to fix this problem."
Lee said, "Especially lawmakers in the National Assembly, as the legislative branch, must check the executive branch even if they are the ruling party," and added, "The president must first change the direction of state affairs, the party must recommend that change, and if it doesn't change, the party must continuously check the president to make him change."
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