It’s official — the Iraq deployment bill finally went through. Thank God. And the vote wasn’t even close — 155 for, 50 against, with seven sitting it out. This, of course, was greatly assisted by the Uri Party’s decision to be team players and back their boy in the Blue House on this one. Good on them — given their base of support, the coming general elections, and their ugly feud with the MDP, you know it wasn’t an easy decision for them to reach. Of course, the MDP used the opportunity to blast the Uri Party:
MDP representatives unleashed an onslaught upon the Uri Party for its decision to back the Iraq bill, with Rep. Kim Young-hwan talking of “Uri Party-GNP anti-peace cooperation,” and Rep. Kim Kyung-jae saying “The Iraq deployment is not about the U.S.-R.O.K. alliance, but the Roh-Bush alliance.”
Given the election dynamics, however, one shouldn’t have expected any less. And give them credit — at least they let the bill come to a vote. Anyway, come April, the ROK will be fielding the third largest contingent in Iraq.
This brings us to the FTA bill, which may be the most sensible piece of legislation never brought to a parliamentary vote in the history of man. Mind you, it’s not like people don’t know that this agreement is good for Korea. But with those pesky general elections coming up, nobody — and I do mean NOBODY — is willing to risk pissing off the farmers by coming out too strongly in favor of it. This leads us into a rather bizarre situation where you have all four party heads (OK, I’m not really sure what MDP chief Jo Sun-hyeong thinks) AND the President backing a piece of legislation, and it still can’t even get laid before a plenary session of the National Assembly for a vote, let alone passed. The Chosun Ilbo, as one can imagine, has been hammering the Prez’s lack of leadership on this issue, running not one, but TWO pieces on it today. It seems like NO ONE from the Blue House has bothered to talk to the country bumpkin rebel-rousers at Yoido (see, I live in Seoul now, so I can call them that) to see if maybe they can be persuaded to get with the program:
MDP representative Lee Jeong-il said, “Assembly Speaker Park Kwan-yong has asked us to cooperate several times, like when he sat down with us for lunch Thursday, but President Roh only came to the National Assembly once to meet with the four party heads. We’ve never received a request to cooperate from the President’s chief of staff, his secretaries, Prime Minister or relevant ministries or ministers.” He went on to ask, “If it’s that important of a national agenda, doesn’t the President himself have to come down directly and offer solutions and try to persuade us [to go along with his initiative]?” GNP representative Yun Han-do said, “We’ve received no requests to cooperate from either Cheong Wa Dae, the cabinet, or party leadership. I know that farmers have reached their limit, and if I can just give them some justification [for the bill], then things might be fine, but nobody’s making the effort. As it stands now, I’m going to oppose a vote on Feb. 16.”
Now, a couple of points. Firstly, while I agree that the President needs to be doing a much better job selling his agenda (especially given Korea’s executive-heavy political culture), he shouldn’t have to ask legislators to stop obstructing the friggin’ vote. If they want to vote against the bill, fine. Given their constituents, I’d vote against it, assuming I wanted to keep my job. But preventing the bill from coming before a plenary session by using some of the guerrilla tactics they’ve been employing is something they simply shouldn’t have to be asked not to do. And Roh isn’t the only one dropping the ball here. The MDP and the Uri Party are slugging it out in the Jeolla (Chosun Ilbo spelling) provinces ahead of the April general elections. If you’ve ever been to the Jeolla Provinces, then you know exactly what this means — everybody’s either a) in the rice paddies or b) in the case of Gwangju and Jeonju (Chosun Ilbo spelling), one generation removed from the rice paddies (thanks go to Craig at Gwangju U for that observation). And in the case of the Uri Party, they’ve got to deal with some of their anti-globalization-type supporters, too. None of this bodes well for the FTA.
This brings us to the GNP. The GNP, as you already know, has its base of support in the Gyeongsang (Chosun Ilbo spelling) provinces. Now, I lived in North Gyeongsang Province long enough to know that it produces three things in abundance — beautiful women (not as beautiful as Mongolia, of course), generals with political aspirations (not so many nowadays), and apples. It also produces some mighty fine grapes, I should add, and there lies the problem. Farmers in Yecheon not only produce apples and grapes, but they also vote. When one considers the fact that Hong Sa-duk, the GNP’s soon to be ex-floor general, is from Yeongju, where they grow apples the size of babies’ heads (go to Puseok-sa Temple in fall and see for yourself), it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that he couldn’t show a bit more leadership in keeping his party members in line. Now, the GNP does have as an excuse the fact that as a party, it’s in such rough shape right now that it really isn’t in a position to do much of anything except (hopefully) disband. But given where its campaign funds have been coming from, you’d have hoped for more effort from the majority party to get the FTA passed, if for no reason other than to keep the contributors happy.
I’m still hopeful that the FTA is going to get passed, as this issue has now become something of an international embarrassment and there seems to be a fair amount of agreement that passing it will hurt a lot less than not passing it. The lack of leadership employed by everyone involved, however, has been quite disturbing, and one can only hope that Roh learns to start taking things by the horns rather than sitting back and watching the situation deteriorate.
8 Comments
i think this lead to this. given that fact, i’d say it will pass next week.
i think i can take the liberty and speak on behalf of all americans and say:
WE THANK YOU, SOUTH KOREA, FOR SENDING THE TROOPS AND BECOMING THE FOUTH LARGEST CONTINGENCY IN IRAQ. OUR SOLDIERS NEED THE SUPPORT! GOD BLESS YOU.
arent they Third? after the US and britain.. thats what i read anyway
anyway, its about time haha
i think some people take it too hard on korea and its troops sometimes. they provided the most troops to vietnam (after the US obviously) but no one ever remembers that.
not to take away from the bravery and sacrifice that the korean military made.. BUT.. korea was paid handsomely for their service.. not only did we pay for their entire operation.. we also made contracts with korean companies to allow them to be the ONLY suppliers or shippers to the southeast asia region. during the late stages of the war, US money flowing in to south korea accounted for a staggering 60% of their GDP. the vietnam war and the olympics in ‘88 built modern korea.
“the vietnam war and the olympics in ‘88 built modern korea.” - Captain Scarlet
From the bottom of my heart: Thank you, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Juan Antonio Samaranch for your leading role in building modern Korea!
Thumbs up, the Vietnam War was absolutely great and the 1988 Olympic Games was magnificient too!!!
Hey, Grant and Captain Scarlet, can?쨈t you simply say: “You?쨈ve come a long way, Baby. But it?쨈s good now. Take care of your health and let us shake hands, Republic of Korea.” This would have been a nice reaction to the Iraq dispatch approval of the National Assembly. I guess, the Koreans can never satisfy you, whatever they do or not.
On a personal level, I’m quite thankful the Koreans are coming along for the ride in Iraq. No question about that. And Shin Jong Il is right — I think we owe the ROK a debt of gratitute, or at least gratitude that our interests in Iraq seem to coincide. But just for the sake of argument, because I know you two (the two Shins, that is) will appreciate it, allow me to play Korean university leftist for a moment and write, “Yeah, but Korea really doesn’t care about the U.S. or Iraq; all it’s doing is protecting its own selfish interests. After all, Korea imports three million barrels of oil a day, and it wants to get the oil contracts for Kirkuk. So why should we say thank you to a bunch of imperialists?” Do I believe that? No, but it IS the argument often espoused by radical leftists and nationalists in Korea concerning American participation in the Korean War, and given your generally dim view of US-ROK relations, Sugar Shin, I’m kind of surprised to see you arguing for a “thank you.” That is, of course, assuming that your model of international relations doesn’t posit that the actions of one state (i.e., Korea) in the international arena are intrinsically more benevolent than the actions of another (i.e., the U.S.)
Mr. Marmot, although I was against starting the Iraq war, I?쨈ve expected a positive reaction of many US folks here, who constantly have waited for a decision of the National Assembly to send the supporting troops from Korea. This wobbling of all political parties and the Roh administration on this “to dispatch or not to dispatch, that?쨈s the question”-drama has finally ended to a positive outcome for the request of the US. I was not arguing for a “thank you”, I?쨈ve expected something like “after all this long quarrel, it?쨈s good for now. You?쨈re putting your soldiers in harm?쨈s way and we all hope, they can get out without casualties.” I was asking for some US leniency and friendlyness towards the lenghty, mindblogging process of decisionmaking and the final decision made.
Starting this war was in my view wrong. Factually the US are now stuck in the Iraq quagmire, but it would be unwise to suddenly leave the destabilized Iraq. Also the troop dispatch is not wholeheartly supported within the Korean population and they are considerations of national interests within (oil interests, taking part in the bidding for construction contracts, calm the US-ROK relations, trying to influence the tough position of the US towards DPRK in the Six-Party-Talks etc.), I?쨈ve expected an “OK, you Korean dudes.” and not something like “OK, but it?쨈s really late and think about your profits during the Vietnam War and… and… and…
as i have said in another post, i make a distinction between you expats. i see mr marmot is the only one to express any appreciation for south korea’s contribution.
i also said that many of you from the angry expat brigade are childish, and willing to use lies to ‘prove’ your point. i need to add two more to the list. many of you are also unappreciative
and murderous.
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TITLE: Seoul’s Murky Vote on Iraq Deployments
BLOG NAME: Kamelian X-Rays
As the Marmot reports, South Korea’s legislature finally voted in favor of a deployment of 3,000 troops to Iraq. I want to highlight, though, that the reasons for this decision are unclear. As the Marmot’s post describes, there was some
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TITLE: Korean political shorts (articles, not underwear)
BLOG NAME: Flying Yangban
(I’m a little busy today too. So here are just a few short things.) The Koreans are coming! (I’m serious this time.) As reported by the Marmot, the General Assembly finally approved the deployment of 3,000 troops to Iraq. It’s