hankyoreh

urging the Lee Myung-bak government to accept the proposal to create a National Assembly special committee to verify the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project in front of the National Assembly

By Lee You Ju-hyun, Staff writer　　

Lee Myung-bak administration’s Four Major Rivers Restoration Project has become the subject of growing calls for a referendum to determine public sentiment. The message from civil society and opposition quarters is that if it is not possible to retire the shovels that are digging into the four rivers despite the opinion polls showing opposition to the project by more than 60 percent of the population, the Lee administration should verify public feelings in favor of and against the project through the ultimate opinion poll of a referendum.

During an interview with the Hankyoreh Thursday, Park Jie-won, main opposition Democratic Party (DP) floor leader and head of the party’s emergency countermeasures committee, said that he would “actively consider the ‘Four Major Rivers referendum’ that civil society is demanding.” Park also said he would propose the pursuit of a referendum to the new party leadership established following the DP’s convention on Oct. 3.

“When the Democratic Party opposed President Lee Myung-bak’s proposal for a referendum on the Sejong City Development Plan, it was because they were proposing holding a referendum over an issue that had been discussed within and outside the National Assembly for several years,” Park said. “This time the situation is different, because civil society is asking to hold a referendum on a national project that was not properly discussed.”

Previously, 143 major figures in the religious and cultural sectors and civil society, including Hope Institute Executive Director Park Won-soon and former Korean People’s Artist Federation Vice President Yim Jin-taek, held a press conference on Sept. 16 at the Korea Green Foundation in Seoul’s Jung-gu district where they proposed holding a referendum on whether to continue pursuing the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project in its current form, altering it, or canceling it altogether. They called on representatives from the government, ruling and opposition parties, and civic and social groups joined together to form a committee to seek a referendum on the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, with the goal of putting an end to the debate by holding the referendum before the end of the year.

　At the National Assembly on Sept. 20, Korea Green Foundation President Choi Yul, Korean Federation for Environmental Movement Co-Presisdent Lee Si-jae, and others met with members of the DP leadership, including Park and Secretary General Lee Mi-kyung, and asked for the party’s cooperation on its plan for a referendum.

The decision by civil society and opposition parties to raise the issue of a referendum on the project has been viewed as an intent to turn the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project into a “people’s issue.”

“Environmental activists have risked their lives to climb the Ipo Weir and hold a sit-in demonstration under blazing heat, and no matter how loudly the opposition calls for a special committee in the National Assembly to examine the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, the ruling party does not respond,” said a DP official. “If a widespread signature campaign takes place to call for a referendum on whether to reexamine the project before the budget battle at the end of the year, the administration is certain to feel the pressure.”

As justification for a referendum, Kim Jin-ai, Democratic Party lawmaker and secretary of the Special Committee to Block the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project, cited a passage from the book “Why a Grand Korean Waterway? (Wae Hanbando Daeunha-inga?)” published in October 2007 by former Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) Secretary for Public Affairs Choo Boo-kil, who had assumed the role of “Grand Korean Waterway missionary.”

On page 332 of the book, Choo responds to the question “If a referendum was held on the Panama Canal, shouldn’t one also be held on the Grand Korean Waterway?” by saying that unlike the Panama Canal, the Grand Korean Waterway “does not cost a cent in national expenditure.”

“At the time, the plan was to pursue it as a privately funded project, but now tens of trillions of won in national funds are being spent on it,” Kim’s camp said. “Is it not therefore proper to hold a referendum?”

However, the prospects for holding such a referendum remain unclear.

Kim Moo-sung, floor leader of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), said Thursday that there was “absolutely no chance” of a referendum.

Furthermore, observers have predicted a debate over the legal aspects of the referendum. Article 72 of the Republic of Korea’s Constitution states that the president “may submit important policies relating to diplomacy, national defense, unification, and other matters relating to the national destiny to a national referendum if he deems it necessary.”

Members of civil society have contended that the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project is ultimately a threat to the foundation of national existence and related to the “national destiny.” They say this is because it will have a decisive impact on the lives of the majority of South Koreans and future generations, and generate major divisions and conflict among the population. However, those within the legal sector maintain varying views on the scope of interpretation for “matters relating to the national destiny.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]