Ruling and opposition party members of the National Assembly's Judiciary and Legislative Committee are in trouble for having an inappropriate drinking session, late into the night, with officials from the Daegu district prosecution, an office that committee members are responsible for auditing. It would be one thing if they drank and parted quietly but Grand National Party (GNP) member Joo Seong Young is being accused of verbally abusing one of the women who worked at the establishment, making for some noisy controversy.
There are conflicting versions of events regarding whether Joo was abusive with one of the waitresses, and the truth has yet to be ascertained. Meanwhile the debate over the truth is reaching comic proportions. Joo actually explains that he "didn't drink poktanju (boilermakers)" and instead "removed the glasses of whiskey that were in the beer and drank things separately." You're annoyed to think that's all an elected representative of the people is made of.
Questions about ugly behavior on Joo's part will require a thorough inquiry and strict disciplinary measures in response, but the more fundamental problem is that National Assembly members continue to allow themselves to be entertained by government offices and agencies they are in the midst of auditing. It is dumbfounding that they are openly doing what one netizen compared to "prosecutors drinking with opposing lawyers in the middle of a trial."
In a written press statement, Joo explains that he was drinking with "four or five prosecution officials" he's close to for reasons of "school and local acquaintance" with other National Assembly members in attendance and officials who had passed the bar examination the same year or who he'd once worked with when he was a prosecutor. That is at once a short description of the nature of the drinking event and a vivid demonstration of a chronic disease in our society, the habit of being wavered by school and regional connections. There isn't any real National Assembly audit going while the auditors are attending such cliquish gatherings, only Assembly audits that have the potential to let agencies off easy and hit them with "clubs made of cotton." In that sense members of the ruling Uri Party are just as deserving of criticism for going drinking at the same event.
The Hankyoreh, 26 September 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Entertaining The Auditors |
