For Yoon Hee-won, a 31-year-old South Korean graduate student who studied political science in the United States for more than 10 years, the ongoing legislative standoff back home is quite different from what he saw while living overseas.

“When I turned on the TV to watch news about Korean politics, the programs often reported about Korean lawmakers getting into fistfights, hiding gavels and throwing furniture in order to prevent the passage of laws. It is quite noteworthy that they don’t do that anymore,” said Yoon.

“What makes me excited is that the Korean lawmakers now try to debate, not physically fight, over issues. It is not about whether I support the bill or not. It is not about whether I agree with the speech that opposition lawmakers are making during the filibuster,” he said.

With opposition lawmakers continuing to stage filibusters for more than three days against a counterterrorism bill they believe would undermine civil liberty by expanding surveillance power, the U.S.-style parliamentary rule has quickly gained prominence among the public. 

Since the filibuster was abolished in 1973, the lawmakers have been mostly deprived of the right to obstruct the passage of bills backed by the majority other than by physically blocking the lawmakers from passing the law. Though the obstruction rule was reinstated in 2012, it was not used until Tuesday.

The rare scene in the National Assembly drew enthusiasm to the new political process particularly among netizens, many of them young voters frustrated with having little access to legislative procedure dominated by partisan battle among establishment politicians.

When the first filibusterer Rep. Kim Kwang-jin took the podium Tuesday and his successor Rep. Eun Soo-mi cracked the record for the longest filibuster in Korea’s history Wednesday, the first-term lawmakers’ names and the word “filibuster” became the most searched items on Naver, Korea’s top search engine.

Some users volunteered for an “online filibuster” by creating a website where citizens could express their opinion on the counterterrorism legislations. Its homepage, filibuster.me, was flooded with comments criticizing the pending bills.

The enthusiasm in cyberspace was also brought to the doorstep of the National Assembly. People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, one of the nation’s largest progressive civic groups, has been launching a campaign at the Assembly since Tuesday to allow citizens to speak out against the bill.

But the mood did not appear to resonate with voters as a whole.

Earlier in the day, Korea Parent Federation, one of the nation’s extreme right-wing groups, held a press conference at the Assembly to condemn the filibuster led by liberal lawmakers and urged the Assembly to pass the antiterrorism law. 

Public poll also showed a split across the political spectrum. Local pollster Realmeater found Wednesday that advocates for the filibuster were outnumbered by opponents, with 46.1 percent opposing the move and 42.6 percent supporting it. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.3 percent points.

Among them, those that identified themselves as liberal supported the filibuster while the conservatives opposed it by 64.9 percent to 73.4 percent. Some 68 percent and 56 percent of those in their 20s and 30s, respectively, supported the filibuster, but those in their 50s and 60s opposed the measure.

While most of the ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers blamed opposition parties for hijacking the legislative process to block the bill conservative party view it as crucial for national security, some moderate Saenuri members acknowledged the filibuster as an opportunity to resolve partisan standoff through discussion.

“The filibuster clause is aimed to prevent physical fighting between the lawmakers over the passage of the bills and encourage them to reach a compromise through discussion. I hope they will pass the law through negotiations,” said Gyeonggi Province Gov. Nam Kyung-pil of the Saenuri Party.

Lee Jung-hee, political professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, agreed that the filibuster would serve to better inform voters about the legislative issues by allowing the lawmakers an opportunity to make their case and communicate directly with the people.

“One of the filibuster’s strengths is its ability to highlight the issue. Back in previous days, the voters were overwhelmed with political standoff and often failed to grasp what the fight was about. By watching the debate, they will better understand the issue,” Lee said.



By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)