Stupid on stupid in the National Assembly

[NOTE: For more in-depth coverage of the current fiasco (including why security guards haven't been called out already), check out the Marmot's latest post.]

Just in case anyone missed it, opposition lawmakers tried to bum rush the OOP members who had seized the Speaker's podium yesterday. The OOP members had occupied the podium after opposition parties (MDP and GNP) introduced impeachment proceedings against Roh for alleged election law violations and incompetence. Korean law requires that the Speaker of the Assembly operate from the podium.

My taxes at work (yeah, I pay Korean taxes). (REUTERS/Lee Jong-Ho pic)

Just when the OOP managed to make themselves look more banal than the opposition parties, the opposition raises the stupidity stakes. It's one thing to have guards remove people who have illegally occupied the podium. It's another thing entirely to try to seize it yourself. What were these guys thinking?

In a related and very interesting note, Orackay says that what you read in English-language press about Roh having violated Korean election law is a lie. He is talking about items like this from the AP story in the first link above:

The opposition parties submitted the impeachment motion on Monday after the National Election Commission ruled the president had violated election laws when he called for "overwhelming support" for the Uri Party at a news conference last month.

The remarks violate campaign laws. But the election watchdog said Roh's comment was a minor infraction not warranting criminal charges.

He's now talking about a conspiracy.

I asked a member of international media in Korea (my first anonymous source) about this. Here is the reply:

The NEC told us about 10 days ago that Roh had committed an infraction of the election law. But that it was not punishable. It was sort of a warning or a citation, short of a punishable violation.

So now I have two people I respect on these kinds of things telling me two different things. I'm beginning to suspect that there is some ambiguous Korean word that is being read two different ways. I'm going to get my personal translation service (AKA: Lady Yangban) on this over the weekend. I'm sure it's not her ideal date but I've got to know.

This is important because, while the election violation is not the only thing that the opposition is citing in the impeachment attempt, it is the "hair that broke the camels back" and it would be a big deal if he did not, in fact, violate election rules.

In a related and positive note: The Korean army is nowhere to be seen.

Comments

[oranckay.net/blog]

The NEC told us about 10 days ago that Roh had committed an infraction of the election law.

That's entirely possible, that someone at the NEC told the foreign press that it was an infraction. But what I'm so pretty sure about is that it didn't say so in it's official judgment, on which so much has been based.