How sadness turns into a battle in Yeouido

I hope the two parties will pay tribute to the victims together and resume the review of the special act to find the truth and prevent any recurrences.

OH HYUN-SEOKThe author is a political news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo. The incompetence of the state and the sadness of the nation are often buried in political strife when it comes to Yeouido. That was the case for the Itaewon disaster a year ago. After the governing People Power Party (PPP) proposed setting up a special committee to investigate the Itaewon disaster — comprised of the PPP, the Democratic Party (DP), the government and safety experts — shortly after the incident, the majority DP rejected it in just two days.

The DP said it would not participate in the committee because the incident was “a man-made disaster caused by the total incompetence of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration.” Three opposition parties suggested a parliamentary investigation instead. This time, the PPP refused to attend assembly meetings, linking the issue to the budget negotiation.

Not many new facts were revealed when the legislative probe first started. Each agency was slow to submit data, claiming the investigation was ongoing. The heads of the agencies who appeared at the National Assembly kept shifting their responsibility to others.

The PPP and the DP fought over the proposal to dismiss the Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and the controversy over DP lawmaker Shin Hyun-young riding the “doctor car” as she went to the disaster site. In the end, they failed to reach an agreement on the report. Some of the victims’ families appealed to the lawmakers, saying that the fact finding was not a subject of political dispute.

The situation since then has been equally chaotic. The DP pushed for the impeachment of Minister Lee, but the Constitutional Court dismissed it unanimously. When political accountability should be taken, the majority party let the judiciary decide.

As the wheel of political strife was rolling, the PPP became bolder. It completely ignored the Itaewon Disaster Special Act aimed at guaranteeing the rights of the disaster victims, fact finding and prevention of a recurrence. Instead, the party argued that it wanted to see the investigation results first.

As a result, the special act was reviewed in the absence of PPP lawmakers. No proper settlement of differences was made. At this rate, when the plenary session begins in December, the special act is highly likely to follow the precedents of the grain management act and the nursing act, which were unilaterally passed by the opposition and vetoed by the president.

That has been the only common denominator between the incompetent governing party, which only cares about pleasing the president, and the majority opposition, which has a shallow calculation that the president’s veto is rather a plus.

Fortunately, I’ve detected some changes in politics. The floor leaders of the two parties agreed to not bring pickets to the plenary and standing committee sessions. They also decided not to shout or yell in meetings. Even though it’s six months before next year’s legislative elections — and though it could be a tactic to smoothly hold the president’s speech on Oct. 31 — it is still a positive development.

The policy committee chairman of the PPP agreed to attend a memorial ceremony for the first anniversary of the Oct. 29 Itaewon disaster, and other PPP leaders are also considering it. I hope the two parties will pay tribute to the victims together and resume the review of the special act to find the truth and prevent any recurrences.