Kang Hoon-sik "Comparing Lee Jae-myung and Ha Young-je is unfair"
Kim Yong-min "The issues are different"
Yoon Hee-seok "Democratic Party should consider whether the public will accept it"
With the approval of the arrest consent motion for Hayoungje, a member of the People Power Party, there is an analysis that the Democratic Party could face difficulties if the next arrest consent motion for Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, comes up. If it is rejected, the party could be criticized for a typical case of 'naeronambul' (double standards: "If I do it, it's romance; if others do it, it's an affair"). Democratic Party lawmakers have uniformly defended themselves by saying, "The arrest consent motion for Representative Ha and that for Leader Lee are different in nature."
Democratic Party lawmaker Kang Hoon-sik said on the 31st on KBS's "Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs," "(The arrest consent motions for Leader Lee and Representative Ha) are different cases, so grouping them as the same is, in my view, 억까 (unfair criticism)." He added, "From the outside, it looks like the same arrest consent motion was submitted, so why was one rejected and the other approved? But in fact, the contents are completely different."
On the 30th, at the plenary session held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is voting on the arrest consent bill for Assemblyman Ha Young-je. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@
Pro-Lee faction lawmaker Kim Yong-min also dismissed the comparison on SBS's "Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show," saying, "Placing them on the same level and comparing is a misuse by the media as a wrong frame and an attack frame against the Democratic Party," emphasizing, "The cases themselves are completely different." Regarding Lee's prosecution investigation, he said, "It was a typical manipulation in a special investigation unit case," but added, "In Representative Ha's case, he actually admitted to having a recorded conversation and does not deny it. So the case itself is completely different from Leader Lee's."
There is also an argument that the arrest consent motions for lawmaker Noh Woong-rae and Representative Ha should be viewed differently. Democratic Party lawmaker Jin Sung-jun said on MBC's "Kim Jong-bae's Focus," "The privilege of non-arrest is meant to protect the legislature and lawmakers from political oppression, but it is hard to see the Yoon Seok-youl government as politically oppressing ruling party lawmakers," adding, "Lawmaker Noh denied the charges, but the prosecution took out all the money from the envelope, took photos of the stacks of cash, and made them public. This itself raised strong suspicions of political oppression."
The day before, the arrest consent motion for Representative Ha was approved with 160 votes in favor, 99 against, and 22 abstentions out of 281 members present. Considering that the People Power Party effectively supported the motion as the party line, at least 40 members of the Democratic Party voted in favor.
The People Power Party expects that more Democratic Party lawmakers will vote in favor when the next arrest consent motion for Leader Lee comes up. Yoon Hee-seok, spokesperson for the People Power Party, said on BBS's "Jeon Young-shin's Morning Journal," "About 40 members may hold the usual belief that the privilege of non-arrest for lawmakers is unreasonable," adding, "There is bound to be criticism asking why only Leader Lee enjoys the privilege of non-arrest as a special privilege, and their beliefs are likely to be translated into action."
Regarding the Democratic Party lawmakers' claims, Spokesperson Yoon said, "The Democratic Party can say that the case against Leader Lee is political oppression, but the party should seriously consider whether the majority of the public will accept that," and criticized, "The Democratic Party must provide a sincere answer to the question of why the privilege of non-arrest should continue to be maintained only for Leader Lee."
On the 30th, at the 2nd plenary session of the 404th National Assembly (extraordinary session) held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, the motion for the arrest consent of National Assembly member Ha Young-je was passed. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@
There are also criticisms that the number of votes in favor of Representative Ha's arrest consent motion was unexpectedly low. Justice Party leader Lee Jung-mi said on KBS Radio, "The People Power Party declared that they should give up their privileges, and the Democratic Party said they would agree to arrest consent motions for individual lawmakers' corruption, but the number of votes in favor was much lower than expected," adding that at least 200 votes should have been cast. Ultimately, lawmakers only looked out for their own members. She said, "I hope this incident becomes an opportunity for lawmakers to give up their privileges and for a genuine self-reflection to arise so that judicial procedures can develop equally."
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