'A declaration to silence the entire opposition'

'Will consider filing criminal complaint'

People Power Party Rep. Park Hyung-su, who leads his party's side on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and fellow PPP committee members hold a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday, criticizing Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chair Seo Young-gyo's conduct of the national audit of the Supreme Court held Tuesday. [Yonhap]
People Power Party Rep. Park Hyung-su, who leads his party's side on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and fellow PPP committee members hold a press conference at the National Assembly on Wednesday, criticizing Legislation and Judiciary Committee Chair Seo Young-gyo's conduct of the national audit of the Supreme Court held Tuesday. [Yonhap]

People Power Party lawmakers on the Legislation and Judiciary Committee called Wednesday for Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Seo Young-gyo, the committee chair, to apologize and pledge that similar incidents would not recur, after she suspended the speaking rights of PPP Rep. Kim Tae-gyu and others during Tuesday's national audit session.

The opposition committee members held a press conference at the National Assembly, saying they had gathered "to lodge a strong protest against Chair Seo's biased and autocratic conduct of proceedings at Tuesday's Legislation and Judiciary Committee national audit of the Supreme Court."

They described the appearance of the chief justice as an ordinary witness and the suspension of opposition lawmakers' speaking rights as events "without precedent in constitutional history."

On the speaking-rights suspension in particular, they pushed back sharply, saying that "suspending the speaking rights of the opposition's lead negotiator on the committee is tantamount to declaring that the entire opposition will be silenced."

Recounting the sequence of events at Tuesday's audit, the PPP members claimed that "Rebuilding Korea Party Rep. Park Eun-jeong first directed abusive language at Rep. Kim, and Rep. Kim simply returned the same words to a ruling-party lawmaker — yet Chair Seo suspended only Rep. Kim's speaking rights."

They also criticized Seo for suspending speaking rights after an exchange of harsh words broke out when the opposition's lead negotiator on the committee objected to her handling of a reference witness's remarks just before an evening recess. "Chair Seo reaches for Article 145 of the National Assembly Act — the order-maintenance provision — at the slightest provocation," they said, adding: "The power to maintain order is not a tool for the chair to silence the opposition. It is a last resort for keeping proceedings on track, not a means of personal retaliation against lawmakers who displease the chair."

They went on to say that "it is precisely the role the National Assembly Act assigns to a committee's lead negotiator to flag procedural problems with a reference witness's remarks and to question whether speaking time is being allocated fairly," asking, "What order, exactly, was being broken?"

Demanding a public apology from Seo for the speaking-rights suspension, they called on her to "promise that the suppression of the opposition and the biased, autocratic conduct of proceedings seen on Tuesday will never happen again," and warned: "If you will not apologize and make that promise, you should acknowledge that you no longer have the standing to lead the Legislation and Judiciary Committee fairly and step down."

The PPP committee members also announced that "the People Power Party will consider every available measure against Chair Seo, including a complaint to the National Assembly Ethics Committee and a criminal complaint on charges such as abuse of authority."


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