[Full Text] Bae Jin-gyo, Representative of the Negotiation Group, Speech: "No More South Korea Where People Have to Work Themselves to Death"

by Jeon Jinyoung

Published 22 Jul.2020 14:50(KST)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] On the 22nd, Bae Jin-gyo, floor leader of the Justice Party, delivered a representative speech for non-negotiating groups in the National Assembly with the message "Let's open a new future of dignity and equality together." In his speech, Floor Leader Bae emphasized the passage of the Serious Accident Corporate Punishment Act in the July National Assembly session, the revision of the Secondary Sexual Violence Victim Protection Act and the Non-consensual Rape Crime Act, and the passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Below is the full text of Floor Leader Bae's speech.

Let's Open a New Future of Dignity and Equality Together

Respected citizens! Overseas compatriots! Speaker of the National Assembly Park Byeong-seok, senior and fellow lawmakers! Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and members of the Cabinet! I am Bae Jin-gyo, floor leader of the Justice Party.

The Serious Accident Corporate Punishment Act?there should no longer be a "Republic of Korea where people must die while working."

Yesterday, a fire at a logistics warehouse in Yongin resulted in 13 casualties, including five deaths. I offer my deepest condolences to the deceased. This tragedy occurred just three months after the Icheon fire disaster that claimed 38 lives. The National Assembly must apologize for these deaths. This tragedy could have been prevented if the Serious Accident Corporate Punishment Act, proposed by the late lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan during the 20th National Assembly, had been passed.

Democratic Party floor leader Kim Tae-nyeon promised here on Monday to "create a society where workers are safe." Please respond with action. I earnestly appeal for the passage of the Justice Party's Serious Accident Corporate Punishment Act in the July National Assembly session.

While over 300 people have lost their lives due to COVID-19 infections in the past five months, about 2,000 workers die every year. The procession of deaths continues?from the Guui Station accident four years ago, the late worker Kim Yong-gyun, the Icheon logistics warehouse, the Daegu sanitation worker deaths, to yesterday's Yongin logistics warehouse fire.

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the passing of the late lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan. I appeal once again to all lawmakers who respect his will. Let's end the "Republic of Korea where people die while working" and the "outsourcing of risk" now.

Let's protect the dignity of sexual violence victims and the safety of all citizens through the revision of the Secondary Sexual Violence Victim Protection Act and the Non-consensual Rape Crime Act.

Our society is currently engulfed in a massive whirlwind surrounding the death of a lifelong respected politician and sexual violence incidents. The Justice Party stands at the center of this.

The first public discussion of sexual violence by power occurred in 1993. Perpetrators of sexual violence have remained in their positions, while victims have hidden in pain for 27 years. Like the cries of the Candlelight Square that said "Is this a country?" and "We can never go back to before the candlelight protests," the calls from various places that "We can never go back to before #MeToo" have pierced through 30 years, clashing with customs and creating a massive whirlwind.

"We must stand on the side of victims and by the standards of victims." This statement by lawyer Park Won-soon 27 years ago was courage to protect the lives of victims as dignified and equal human beings, wasn't it? Must the mourning for him and the solidarity to protect victims necessarily be in opposition?

The declaration to stand in solidarity with victims who have been silently suffering beyond the shock of the politician's memorial fervor is a practice of dignity and equality. Even in this National Assembly, where "silence is golden," two lawmakers have broken the silence and taken action. I offer deep respect and support to these two lawmakers. Your words must have been a great comfort to countless women and minorities who hide their pain. The principle that "we must stand on the side of victims and by the standards of victims" is a principle the Justice Party has upheld.

This issue cannot be approached with the entrenched partisan logic of the two major parties. The shameless politics that excludes sexual violence from the "corruption of elected officials" it codified itself, and the cruel politics that dismiss power-based sexual crimes as "scandals" offer no empathy or healing. Let's join the desperate call that we can never go back to before #MeToo and the great change to open a future of dignity and equality.

"I wanted to resist but couldn't even make a sound." The nightmares of victims of the "Nth Room" case and power-based sexual crimes are no different. Those who need courage to return to daily life and those who need support to muster that courage are also victims. I ask everyone to stop secondary victimization of victims immediately. I appeal to all political parties to join in passing the Secondary Sexual Violence Victim Protection Act and revising the Non-consensual Rape Crime Act to protect victims' dignity and prevent sexual violence.

The Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act?please join us for a dignified tomorrow for all of us.

Respected Speaker Park Byeong-seok and senior and fellow lawmakers! The Justice Party's "Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act" is a law for the dignity of all of us.

According to a public perception survey conducted by the National Human Rights Commission, seven out of ten respondents said there are social groups targeted for hatred or discrimination due to COVID-19. Ninety percent of respondents said they could become targets of discrimination at any time. Most of our citizens know that discrimination is a reality and can happen to anyone. And even now, for someone, a hellish daily life is unfolding.

A student who was admitted to a women's university gave up enrollment because she is transgender. A soldier was forced to discharge against his will. In the civil service exam in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, a hearing-impaired person failed the interview due to lack of accommodations. Foreign workers who lost jobs due to the COVID crisis paid health insurance premiums but did not receive disaster relief funds. Who are the beings living with today's pain and tomorrow's anxiety?

I appeal to all parties in the floor. If you agree that all humans are dignified and equal, please join us in passing the Anti-Discrimination Act in the 21st National Assembly to enrich our society and democracy.

The COVID crisis must be overcome by strengthening the public healthcare system and the role of the state and government.

Respected citizens! We have left a model called "K-quarantine" in response to the COVID crisis. Once again, I thank all frontline workers for their hard work. We will never forget that everything is thanks to you.

However, despite many people's dedication, as we enter the second half of the year, are we truly safe? Less than 6% of medical institutions nationwide, including national university hospitals and local medical centers, must handle 77% of all confirmed cases. Public hospital beds account for only 10.3%. In Gyeongnam, where Jinju Medical Center disappeared, patients had to be sent to Masan Medical Center 120 km away. Achieving this level of quarantine performance amid a severe shortage of public medical institutions is itself a miracle. "K-quarantine" was possible thanks to frontline workers.

We cannot rely on their sweat and tears forever hoping for miracles. What the government must do immediately is to strengthen the public healthcare system. We must expand and strengthen 35 local medical centers and ensure at least one essential public medical institution in each of the 70 medical service areas nationwide. No more patients should wander the streets due to lack of public hospital beds. The government should hasten to present plans to strengthen the essential public healthcare system rather than promoting deregulation or the "miracle of K-quarantine."

In contrast to public healthcare, large private hospitals showed helplessness in critical crises. Markets, including large private hospitals and global corporations, were not much help in this crisis. What saved the people in the midst of disaster was public healthcare, the public distribution of masks, and disaster relief funds from central and local governments.

The "Korean New Deal" cannot overcome inequality, polarization, and the climate crisis or the COVID crisis.

Indeed, government policy is decisive in overcoming disaster-level situations like now. Moreover, if we were already deeply mired in a wider and deeper quagmire before the COVID crisis, its importance needs no further explanation.

Yesterday, United Future Party floor leader Joo Ho-young criticized the policy of zero irregular workers while mentioning the regularization of irregular workers at Incheon Airport. Then what must irregular workers do to become regular workers? Does this mean once an irregular worker, always an irregular worker?

This incident, which seems like a conflict between job seekers and irregular workers, is not a matter of fairness. The so-called "In-guk-gong" controversy reflects the serious structuralized gap in our society since the 1997 financial crisis. While the top 10% hold two-thirds of net assets, half of the Korean people have only 1.8%, economic inequality that has become educational inequality, which in turn has become employment inequality?a "new caste society" reflected as is. This "quagmire of inequality" is a trap dug by the two major parties of vested interests, who have been generous to corporate real estate unearned income but stingy to labor for 30 years while deciding all policies.

At the center of the quagmire of inequality is real estate. Policy makers who claim to prevent real estate speculation, whether at the Blue House, government ministries, or the National Assembly, actually occupy the upper echelons of rent-seeking from speculation. Moreover, the two major parties give huge benefits to corporations, the core of the "real estate invincibility." As a result, over 10 years, conglomerates have been able to buy land more than 3,000 times the area of Yeouido, building an iron fortress called the "real estate invincibility myth" and the "conglomerate invincibility myth." Therefore, the sudden administrative capital issue is absurd, and the anger of the 20s to 40s generation is very reasonable.

What about the climate issue? Over the past 20 years, during alternating rule by the two major parties, Korea's carbon emissions increased from 500 million tons to 700 million tons. Korea has become a global "climate villain country." The two major powers that monopolized policy have packaged it as "sustainable growth" and "inclusive growth," but have failed to reduce even the expanding greenhouse gases.

We, already trapped in the snares of inequality, polarization, and the climate crisis, need a new breakthrough. In the situation compounded by the COVID crisis, the government's "Korean New Deal" is closer to a black hole than a breakthrough. The "Korean New Deal," announced directly by the president, is a policy responsible for the next 10 years, promising 1.9 million jobs by investing 114 trillion won in national funds by 2025. However, criticism is fierce that the government's "Korean New Deal" has no "deal with workers or citizens," only a "deal with large corporations," and no "new deal opening a transformative future," only an "old deal" accelerating the existing economy.

I urge the president. Responsibility must be held by Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki and Policy Chief Kim Sang-jo. The responsibility for the 160 trillion won Korean New Deal project, which will determine the fate of the Korean economy, going down the wrong path lies with the economic team led by the Blue House policy chief. Before it's too late, the economic deputy prime minister and policy chief must be replaced immediately, and we must not miss the last chance for the people's lives to find the right direction.

Let's prepare for a new era by transitioning to a "green economy" and "equitable economy" and introducing a nationwide employment insurance system.

We must completely shift direction to a "green economy" that pursues economic development sustainable for the planet amid the imminent climate crisis, and an "equitable economy" that reduces inequality and polarization, which have even transformed into a modern caste society. The Justice Party proposes to the two major parties that the real new deal needed now is a "great transition to a decarbonized economy" that halves carbon emissions within 10 years.

To support the economy and jobs devastated by the COVID crisis, we also propose the introduction of a nationwide employment insurance system, a completely different social safety net. The introduction of nationwide employment insurance is an urgent task in the current "in-COVID" era. The government's existing employment insurance expansion, which adds some special employment types, cannot rescue self-employed people who must close their shops immediately. We must apply employment insurance to all citizens and establish a robust income safety net that compensates all workers not only for job loss but also for income loss.

The political reform rejected by the two major parties must not stop.

Respected citizens! The 21st general election was a disgrace in the history of Korean democracy. The two major parties created satellite parties for proportional representation, stole citizens' votes, and illegally took seats. This is an event worthy of being recorded in history textbooks as legislation followed immediately by lawbreaking.

I ask the Democratic Party. Do you have any intention to apologize to the people even now? The Democratic Party should be ashamed of the two letters "Minju" (democracy) in its name. As the ruling party and the largest party, please present what plans you are considering regarding political reform and the electoral system. If there is a plan that reflects public opinion and can eliminate politics dominated by the two major parties, the Justice Party is willing to consider any such plan.

Let's create a breakthrough for peace on the Korean Peninsula through bipartisan cooperation.

Speaker Park Byeong-seok officially proposed a South-North parliamentary meeting on the 17th. The Justice Party actively supports this and further proposes the ratification of all past inter-Korean agreements by the National Assembly.

Peace is not a matter of left or right, nor of progressive or conservative. We all, regardless of party, are rooted in the declaration of peace on the Korean Peninsula. The Moon Jae-in administration's April 27 Panmunjom Declaration and September 19 Military Agreement, Roh Moo-hyun administration's October 4 Joint Declaration, Kim Dae-jung administration's June 15 Joint Declaration, and all these peace declarations originated from the Park Chung-hee administration's July 4 South-North Joint Statement and the Roh Tae-woo administration's South-North Basic Agreement?let's ratify all six inter-Korean agreements, showing the National Assembly's will for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Through bipartisan cooperation inheriting the peace spirit of previous governments, the 21st National Assembly should create a breakthrough for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The Justice Party will lead a new era of dignity and equality.

Respected citizens! The Justice Party will end the era when we had to hide under vested interests and open a just great transformation for an equal and dignified future.