Sewol families desperately seeking help to rescue sinking parliament

  • Print
Details
Category: General
Published on Saturday, 31 May 2014 05:01
Hits: 1358

 

Posted on : May.29,2014 11:49 KST

 

hankyoreh

 

 

Members of the Sewol victims’ Emergency Family Committee weep as they hold signs calling for the parliamentary investigation into the Sewol sinking to start as soon as possible, in front of the National Assembly Main Hall in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood, May 28. (by Kim Kyung-ho, staff photographer)

Political deadlock is scuttling efforts toward thorough parliamentary investigation into last month’s sinking

By Ha Eo-young and Seo Bo-mi, staff reporters

 

There was to be no more “waiting.” The ruling and opposition parties had wanted them to sit still while they slipped out for the upcoming municipal elections, but the family members stopped them in their tracks and dragged them into the floundering talks toward a parliamentary investigation into the Sewol ferry sinking.

 

After spending a sleepless night waiting for an agreement on a special parliamentary investigation plan, the families of the Sewol victims decided on May 18 that they couldn’t wait another minute for the politicians. The organizers of the Emergency Family Committee set up a booth in front of the main conference room in the National Assembly Hall - the same place they had stayed up the night before - and began collecting signatures to find out the truth of the accident. Their target was 10 million, they said.

 

On the morning of May 28, the committee held a press conference in front of the conference room.

 

“The ruling and opposition parties are acting like the Sewol’s captain now,” said chairman Kim Byeong-gon, referring to the captain’s decision to flee the sinking vessel last month. “You, the public, need to rescue this sinking parliament.”

 

During the press conference, one victim’s mother took the stand.
 
“I’m here today because I’ve come to understand that we live in a country where you die if you wait when they tell you to wait and sit still when they tell you to sit still,” she said. “We need to have a thorough investigation where nothing is off limits, because we can’t let these unfair and needless sacrifices happen again. It’s the only way to make this a safe country where disasters like the Sewol don’t happen anymore. . . .”

 

At that point, the mother began crying and was unable to continue. The fifty family members in front of her also began to tear up.

 

The family members issued three demands: a bipartisan agreement on a parliamentary investigation into the disaster, a “no sacred cows” approach to the investigation, and a preliminary parliamentary agreement on the subjects and witnesses in the investigation. They added they planned to stay at the National Assembly until the investigation begins.

 

After the press conference, the family members left to visit a number of organizations to spread the word about the signature campaign and ask for participation. The organizations included civic groups like People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, and YMC; labor groups like the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions; and religious groups like the National Council of Churches in Korea. This weekend, the family members plan to visit 26 memorials to the Sewol victims in 17 cities and provinces around the country to gather signatures themselves.

 

Like the Coast Guard in its response to the sinking ferry, politicians on both sides seemed to show little sense of responsibility. The lawmakers appointed to the ruling Saenuri Party (NFP) special parliamentary inquiry committee held a meeting at 11 am on May 28, but failed to make headway. There was no budging on the key issue: Blue House Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon.

 

Speaking a press conference afterwards, committee chief Shim Jae-chul reiterated that Kim was not going to be named in advance as a witness.

 

“Once the committee has been launched, we’ll move quickly to select the witnesses at that time,” he said.

 

Some within the party blamed its passive leadership.

 

“The minute Blue House advisers like Kim Ki-choon get called as witnesses, we’re going to get caught in a storm of political attacks against President Park Geun-hye,” said one second-term lawmaker on condition of anonymity.

 

“Still, we can’t just make the family members go through all this,” the lawmaker added.

 

A first-term lawmaker agreed.

 

“It’s outrageous that family members of the victims are being made to come here to National Assembly and stay up all night,” the lawmaker said.

 

“Both sides need to make concessions so we can reach an agreement sometime today.”

 

Meanwhile, the opposition appeared to have no real strategy.

 

“All we can do is sit and wait for the Saenuri Party [NFP] to decide,” said one New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) lawmaker. “We’re totally stuck on the Kim Ki-choon issue, and there’s almost no room for the NPAD to negotiate.”

 

At 4:30 that afternoon, Speaker Kang Chang-hee summoned the two parties‘ special committee secretaries, Cho Won-jin for Saenuri and Kim Hyun-mee for the NPAD. No common ground could be found.

 

“We suggested having the two parties’ secretaries discuss their requested witnesses and come to a decision on who to select, but all the NPAD wants to do is scuttle the negotiations,” Cho argued.

 

Leaving the Speaker’s office, Kim said, “We suggested leaving Kim Ki-choon’s name off the witness list and putting ‘Chief of Staff’ on the list for institution reports, but they’re refusing to do that.”

 

While this was happening, members of the Emergency Family Committee stood in front of the National Assembly headquarters carrying signs calling for an immediate start to an investigation where “no one is off limits.” They were rejoined by other family members who had gone back to Ansan the day before.

 

The number of family members participating on the committee was back up above 100.

 

“The Sewol isn’t just about us,” they chanted. “It’s about everyone in this country. Please help. Please don’t forget. Please join us.”

 

(EDITORIAL from the JoongAng Daily on May 31)

 

2014/05/31 09:22

 

 

A probe for the history books

   Political parties have reached agreement to hold a 90-day legislative investigation into the April 16 sinking of the Sewol ferry in which more than 300 were killed or went missing. Rival parties set aside partisan differences and approved an outline for the probe under pressure from victims’ families, who have been camping outside the National Assembly for days.

   One major issue in the wrangling was whether Kim Ki-choon, the president’s chief of staff, would be summoned for questioning. The solution to that thorny issue was not to specifically summon Kim by name, but to require chiefs of his office to come in for questioning as key witnesses. Also summoned will be people from 18 government offices, including the presidential secretariat, national security council, prime minister’s office, National Intelligence Service, Ministry of Security and Public Administration, the Korea Coast Guard, Ministry of National Defense, the Korea Communications Commission and four state agencies: the Korean Register of Shipping, the Korea Shipping Association and public broadcasters KBS and MBC. The scope and scale will be unprecedented, as it should be given the gravity of the crisis that uncovered comprehensive and deep-seated problems such as complacency about public safety, administrative carelessness, lax oversight, collusion and corruption in the bureaucracy, and in Korean customs, social and cultural norms. The parliamentary probe, which will dominate the political scene for most of the summer after it starts next week, must serve as a tipping point for the entire society to question why we care so little about safety in this country and how to finally outgrow our immature ways