Unified Party Freshmen Lawmakers "Difficult to See the Speaker Panel as Neutral... Great Disappointment"

At 11 AM on the 27th, Letter Delivered to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] On the 27th, the first-term lawmakers of the United Future Party stated, “Ahead of the three-day first government questioning session of the 21st National Assembly, the 58 first-term lawmakers of the United Future Party approached it with the intention of experiencing the purpose of the government questioning and gauging how to conduct future legislative activities. However, we could not help but feel considerable disappointment regarding the chairmanship’s handling of the session, which was difficult to view as neutral.”

The first-term lawmakers of the United Future Party planned to deliver a letter containing these remarks to National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seok and Deputy Speaker Kim Sang-hee at 11 a.m. that day, as conveyed by United Future Party lawmaker Jo Su-jin via Facebook.

They pointed out, “Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae responded emotionally throughout to opposition lawmakers’ questions with remarks such as ‘So what do you want me to do?’ Furthermore, despite the arrogant attitude of the cabinet members who appeared to answer the questions posed by the representatives of the people, Speaker Park and Deputy Speaker Kim did not immediately caution or restrain them but instead appeared to be watching the cabinet members’ reactions.”

They added, “There was no immediate restraint on the ruling party’s first-term lawmakers who exploited the government questioning session as a platform for opposition attacks. Deputy Speaker Kim only intervened after prolonged protests from opposition lawmakers, and even then, defended them by saying, ‘I believe they can express their own political positions.’”

They expressed, “We believed Speaker Park would make a sober judgment on whether the majority of the people want the ruling party’s unilateral dominance or bipartisan cooperation, and we expected Deputy Speaker Kim, as the first female deputy speaker in the 73-year history of the National Assembly, to manage the assembly accordingly. Therefore, the conduct shown by both was an even greater disappointment.”

They stated, “If the ‘absolute majority ruling party’ that cannot move independently of the Blue House tries to isolate the opposition, the National Assembly will not escape criticism as a ‘Blue House branch office’ or a ‘rubber-stamp legislature.’ We respectfully request that you take care to prevent unfair scheduling procedures from recurring.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.