Posted on : Jun.28,2006 10:39 KST
Opposition party says law to regulate school transactions needs resolution first
On June 27, with only three days left before the end of a special National Assembly session, the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) said that if a law to crack down on murky monetary transactions at private secondary schools and universities is not strengthened, they will not deal with any other bills on the docket, including a law to regulate the safety of school lunches. The so-called school lunch law has become a hot-button issue after a large-scale outbreak of food poisoning in school cafeterias in the capitol region two weeks ago.
Debate on other laws that would reform the banking industry and the nation’s judiciary were delayed from April to the present Assembly session because the GNP said the so-called private school law was linked to the two bills. Criticism was thus raised that the National Assembly has not been able to function properly due to the GNP’s insistence on pushing through the private school law revision.
Kim Han-gill, ruling Uri Party floor leader, held a meeting with his GNP counterpart Lee Jae-oh to discuss ways to deal with the bills before the end of the current parliamentary session, but they did not reach agreement on revision of the private school law.
After the meeting, Rep. Lee said, "The school lunch law is linked to the private school law, as well."
Rep. Lee continued, saying that "even if the school lunch law is passed during this session, there will not be drastic changes to the school meal business. We need more time to discuss this problem completely, because important issues exist, such as whether the schools will directly manage school meals from now on."
Rep. Kim of the Uri Party suggested an extension of the special Assembly session to handle important bills related to reform and public livelihood, but Rep. Lee replied that "it is difficult practically," referring to his party’s upcoming national convention, scheduled later this month.
Lee Bin-pa, a representative of Geubsik, an organization of civic activists and agricultural industry lobby groups, said, "It doesn’t make sense that politicians make children’s food [safety] a condition of political bargaining." The organization said the GNP should stop talking about public livelihood, and start actually passing legislature on the issue.
The two parties agreed to resume negotiations after collecting opinions of their parties’ members. However, unless the two reach agreement by June 30, the bills will have to be handled at the next plenary session in September.
During the current session, the two parties have already agreed to deal with the approval of Supreme Court justices, the formation of special committees related to the ongoing Korea-U.S. free trade agreement negotiations, and to look at bills involving job generation.
