Return to Backbiting At Assembly Session

Partisan bickering began anew on the floor of the National Assembly as an interpellation session opened Monday.

Lawmakers from both the ruling and the opposition camps grilled Prime Minister Lee Han-dong on a constitutional amendment which would create a U.S.-style presidency, the ongoing tax audit of national media companies and wayward reform programs.

Representatives Kwon Oh-eul and Lee Won-chang of the opposition Grand National Party criticized the Kim Dae-jung administration for having reduced the government to a testing-ground for reforms, rather than getting down to the business of governing.

"The government is in disarray, but the administration doggedly pursues the ruin of the opposition and prolonging its hold on power," they said.

"Dispute accompanies reform," Rep. Ahn Dong-seon of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party countered. "To ensure that society is reformed, politics must first be reformed."

Opposition lawmakers dubbed the ongoing tax audit into 23 national media companies as "the administration's attempt to incapacitate the 'Big Three' press companies." The "Big Three" refer to the major Korean vernacular newspapers, the Joong-Ang, Chosun and Dong-a dailies.

"It is unfortunate that media reform is tied up in knots with this attempt to muzzle the press," Rep. Kim Young-choon said. "It will only serve to hinder reform."

Ruling party representative Choo Mi-ae shot back, saying, "Why should media companies be exempt from tax audits? People understand the audit," she said.

by Lee Yang-soo