Lawmakers scuffle during final session

Lawmakers scuffle during final session
12,9,2005
The last day of the National Assembly regular session ended in ugly scenes with lawmakers scuffling and brawling as rival political parties clashed over a long-standing bill designed to overhaul the management of private schools.

The National Assembly finally passed the bill while the opposition Grand National Party boycotted the vote.

Of 154 legislators who cast ballots, 140 voted in favor while four said no and 10 abstained.

As they had previously warned, GNP members used every possible roughhouse tactic, attempting to block the opening of the plenary session and thwart the voting process.

"The bill is intended to change private schools to the taste of those in power. We will fight to the death (to stop it)," GNP leader Rep. Kang Jae-sup told party leaders in an early morning meeting.

However, the Uri, having won support of two minor parties on the issue, was firmly set to pass the bill, one of its four flagship reform measures.

"We will proceed with the bills in accordance with the parliamentary process," said Uri leader Chung Sye-kyun.

The GNP controls only 127 votes in the 299-seat unicameral parliament and therefore was unable to beat the alliance of the Uri and minor parties, if it participated in the vote. Uri holds 144 seats while the Democratic Party and the Democratic Labor Party control 11 and 9, respectively. The United Liberal Democrats hold three seats and independents have five.

The opposition party has been highly critical of the school reform bill which calls for teachers and parents to participate on boards of directors in schools to improve the transparency of school management and prevent abuses of power by school owners. The measure would infringe upon the independence of private school foundations, GNP legislators argue.

Outside the parliament, an association of private school owners threatened to shut down their schools if the parliament passes the bill. It says the bill runs counter to the Constitution by excessively restricting the basic rights of school owners.

The parliamentary budget session came to a close yesterday but the lawmakers are preparing to open an extraordinary session to handle a stack of unresolved legislation including next year's budget plan.

The acrimony between the rival parties worsened on Wednesday after Uri legislators sitting on a parliamentary panel forced a vote on a highly-controversial bill on new property taxes despite opposition from the GNP legislators.

But Uri decided to postpone a final parliamentary vote on the bill until the next session of parliament at the end of the year.

The bill calls for imposing the highest-ever tax burden on the owners of multiple houses. It is one of the Uri's top-priority bills designed to back up the government's tough antispeculation policy unveiled Aug. 31.