PSPD Expressed Deep Gratitude to those who participated in the ‘public lobby’ for the revision of Seoul Square Ordinance.

[Thanks-Letter from the Public Lobby Team]


Dear. Citizens participating in revising of the Seoul Square Ordinance


We like to express our deep gratitude to those who participated in the ‘public lobby’ for the revision of Seoul Square Ordinance.

The Seoul Citizens Campaign Team for the Revision of Seoul Square Ordinance launched a ‘public lobby’ campaign to directly deliver their request for the ordinance revision via telephone, text message and e-mail to the members of the Seoul City Council starting from March 23.

The Team held press conferences twice, calling on the Seoul City Council to bring forward and pass the revised bill before the end of this term. Also, the Team made various efforts to press the Council, including a couple of interviews with the Chairman of the Government Administration and Local Autonomy Committee, and with the Chairman of the Seoul City Council.

However, the revised bill, which was put forth by more than ten thousand citizens of Seoul, failed to be brought before the plenary session, with the Government Administration and Local Autonomy Committee of the Seoul City Council avoiding pre-legislative scrutiny.

The Committee deferred their decision on the pretext that the revised bill requires in-depth discussions, and that it clashes with other higher law.

That is simply an excuse, and nothing more. It was on December 29th when the revised bill was submitted. The Committee has simply given an excuse since it could not reject the sensitive bill in the lead up to the local election. The claim by the Committee that the revised bill clashes with other higher laws is another excuse. While the Committee asserts that the permit system cannot be switched into the report system pursuant to the Common Property Law, the revised bill is a de facto ‘eased permit system’, that is, a report system.

At present, the Seoul City Council is entirely dominated by the ruling Grand National Party (GNP). All of the nine members of the Government Administration and Local Autonomy Committee who avoided pre-legislative scrutiny of the revised bill belong to the GNP. Among the rest of the council members, five are from the Democratic Party and only one from the Democratic Labor Party. The GNP has been against the revision of Seoul Square Ordinance, and as a result, the revised bill could not be passed even in the Government Administration and Local Autonomy Committee in the face of one-party rule.

The Citizens’ Initiative System itself is intended to impose compulsory discussions when a certain ordinance of citizens’ concern fails to be dealt with due to ignorance of the council or because of political reasons. However, despite the successful initiative by citizens, in which ten thousand citizens participated, the Seoul City Council, where the ruling GNP takes majority seats, finally ignored people’s request.

Of course, there is one regular session left after the local election. However, it is doubtful that the Council will proceed with the discussions after the election to bring forward to the plenary session and pass the revised bill in accordance with citizens’ will, considering that the Seoul City Council, the Government Administration, and the Local Autonomy Committee ignored what people wanted, which was confirmed through the participation of ten thousand citizens, just before the election, when they are presumed to be the most sensitive with voters.

Notwithstanding, we will not just sit by and watch. The Campaign Team will do its best to prevent the revised bill from being discarded with the expiration of the 7th term of the Seoul City Council. The Campaign Team already called on the Council to either extend its term or open an extraordinary session so as to discuss the revised bill. The Government Administration and the Local Autonomy Committee of the Seoul City Council suspended pre-legislative scrutiny of the revised bill for ‘in-depth discussions’ on March 25th. With this taken into consideration, the Campaign Team intends to call for the opening of discussion sessions and public hearings, and the convening of an extraordinary session.

In addition, the Team will continue to carry out activities geared to restoring common sense against the closure of Seoul Square by asking Seoul mayor candidates and candidates for the City Council about their policy towards Seoul Square including pros and cons to the revised bill of Seoul Square Ordinance.

Lastly, as publicly pledged, the Team will try to ask responsibility  of the members of the Government Administration, the Local Autonomy Committee and Kim Ki-seong, the Chairman of the Seoul City Council, who are considered responsible for the decision on the reservation of the legislation, by mobilizing possible legal measures including campaigns for defeating those candidates.

We would like to thank the citizens of Seoul once again for their valuable efforts to directly deliver their opinions to the Seoul City Council via telephone, text-message and e-mail. We will continue our acitivities for the revision of the Seoul Square Ordinance until the Square is returned to the citizens of Seoul themselves.


Sincerely

Staff in the Public Lobby Team