Minister and Lawmaker Both? The "Yong Hye-in Controversy" Roots Back to the "Baru Incident"

00:00 Intro

00:06 "Animal National Assembly"

02:12 "Trick Competition"

03:25 "Concurrent Holding Controversy"

04:34 "Remaining Questions"

Today's <AFTER 8NEWS> will begin by looking back at the scene of the National Assembly on April 27, 2019, about 7 years ago.

1. "Animal National Assembly"

Do you remember this scene? Profanities, collar-grabbing, and fierce physical clashes. It was the day when the term "Animal National Assembly," which had subsided after the enforcement of the National Assembly Advancement Act, reemerged. Around 200 lawmakers and aides tangled and fought inside the parliament, and people exhausted from all-night fighting collapsed or fainted one after another. As you may have heard often, even iron crowbars, commonly called "baru," appeared to break open doors.

[Bang! Bang!]

Even today, "baru" has become a term in political circles symbolizing the events of that time.

[Sim Sang-jung / Then Justice Party Lawmaker & Chair of the Special Committee on Political Reform (April 2019): The floor leader of the main opposition party making a lawless world! Representative Na Kyung-won, come forward!]

[Na Kyung-won / Then Liberty Korea Party Floor Leader (April 2019): Observe the National Assembly Act properly! What do you have to say! Democratic Party's double agent, be quiet!]

This extreme confrontation on that day had various reasons, but it was because of the "semi-mixed member proportional representation system" pushed by the then-ruling Democratic Party and four minor parties. April 2019 was exactly one year ahead of the general election, meaning they wanted to change the rules for electing lawmakers. The system is a bit complex, but when electing lawmakers, you vote for a constituency lawmaker and vote for proportional representation based on political parties, right? However, the change was to restructure it so that parties with more constituency winners would receive fewer proportional representation seats. Since major parties usually win many constituency seats, the purpose was to give minor parties a breathing room through proportional representation. From the perspective of the Liberty Korea Party, the predecessor of the People Power Party, they fiercely opposed this, saying that calling it consideration for minor parties was nonsense since they were all on the same side and they could not accept it, leading to this chaos. Eventually, at the end of that year, the bill containing this change in the general election rules was passed through the joint efforts of the then-ruling Democratic Party and four minor parties. Back then, the National Assembly also suffered severe turmoil.

[Moon Hee-sang / Then National Assembly Speaker (December 27, 2019): Moon Hee-sang dies a dozen times a day these days. I'm already dead. Only the phantom is left and all the substance is gone.]

2. "Trick Competition"

To reiterate just the core of the changed system, I said it is a mutually linked structure where the more constituency lawmakers are elected, the fewer proportional representation seats are given, right? Eventually, a expedient method called a satellite party was mobilized. The Future Korea Party, the predecessor of the People Power Party, preemptively created a satellite party. It is structured such that they field only constituency candidates, while the satellite party fields only proportional representation candidates. Since they are legally separate parties, the constituency and proportional representation seats are not linked with each other, right? And after the election, the two parties simply merge back together. The Democratic Party strongly criticized this, but seeing how it unfolded, they thought they would lose many seats this way. Overturning their criticism, they hastily concocted something similar to a satellite party as well. However, to make it a bit different from the People Power Party, they created a platform allied with minor parties. And after the election, each returns to their respective party. The Basic Income Party also participated in this platform, and received one proportional representation seat in the election before last and the last general election. Candidate Yong Hye-in was elected as a proportional representation lawmaker both times, becoming a second-term lawmaker.

3. "Concurrent Holding Controversy"

This is precisely where the problem began. Lawmaker Yong Hye-in was nominated as the candidate for the Minister of Gender Equality, and expressed her intention to maintain both the ministerial post and her proportional representation lawmaker seat. While constituency lawmakers have traditionally held both when appointed as ministers, it has been customary for proportional representation lawmakers to step down from their lawmaker seats upon becoming ministers. Instead, the next person in line on the proportional representation list of the affiliated party would succeed them. However, as mentioned earlier, candidate Yong became a proportional representation lawmaker through a "platform" created by an alliance of multiple parties. Therefore, the next person in line is not from the Basic Income Party. As it turns out, it is from the Democratic Party. Ultimately, if candidate Yong resigns from her lawmaker position, the Basic Income Party will lose its only parliamentary seat and be relegated to an extra-parliamentary party. Then, they wouldn't even receive the party subsidies expected to be 1.1 billion won per year, and the salaries of aides or office operation expenses would all be cut off.

[Yong Hye-in / Candidate for Minister of Gender Equality and Family: Since the hearing process is a process of communicating together with our citizens, I will prepare well for the hearing so that I can organize and convey my thoughts well.]

4. "Remaining Questions"

Ultimately, this special political structure—arising because she entered through a satellite party platform—is the background that forces the retention of concurrent positions and acts as a major point of criticism. In the past, candidate Yong even held a press conference arguing that party subsidies were breeding parasitic parties and should be abolished, but interpretations are now emerging that she is clinging to holding concurrent positions precisely because of the subsidies. On the other hand, counterarguments intersected questioning whether the opportunity cost differs between giving a seat to a major party versus a minor party. Facing the dilemma where following custom causes the parliamentary status of minor parties to vanish, while protecting seats faces controversy over holding concurrent proportional representation positions, the "structural dilemma spawned by the satellite party system" is the core issue of this controversy. There is another question. The fundamental question was also raised as to whether the concurrent holding of a lawmaker and minister position is valid in itself. While it has merely been tacitly condoned in the past under the pretext of being a constituency lawmaker, awareness of the problem regarding the practice of members of the legislature concurrently serving as cabinet members of the executive branch remains. When elected as a regional representative, it is difficult to look after the region in detail if one becomes a minister. Naturally, questions arise as to why they were elected in the first place. Ultimately, this controversy is posing heavy questions to the outdated rules of our politics, ranging from the systemic evils of the electoral system and the validity of the practice of lawmakers holding concurrent ministerial posts, extending far beyond the personal issues of candidate Yong Hye-in. With a year and a half left until the next general election, if the semi-mixed member proportional representation system and the practice of lawmakers concurrently serving as ministers are pondered in the National Assembly and constructive alternatives emerge, could the current controversy surrounding candidate Yong Hye-in remain as tuition fees toward better politics?

(Reported by Lee Gyeong-won, Produced by Shin Hee-suk, Video reporting by Seol Min-hwan, Video editing by Na Hong-hee, Design by Lee Jung-joo, Writer by Kim Hyo-jin, Intern by Kim Jung-won, Produced by SBS Digital News)

※