Ouster of sexist lawmaker voted down

By Park Si-soo

A lawmaker accused of making sexist remarks to college students retained his seat as a motion to oust him was voted down in the National Assembly Wednesday. It triggered criticism that legislators are too generous to wrongdoings committed by fellow lawmakers.

Rep. Kang Yong-seok of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) came under fire in July last year for making lewd remarks about TV anchorwomen and women’s appearances in a meeting with a group of female college students.

In the meeting, the first-term lawmaker told a student who wanted to become a TV announcer, “Do you know that you have to give ‘everything’ to become an announcer? Do you want to become an announcer despite this?”

His remarks created a stir after being reported. In response, the GNP kicked him out of the party as a special ethics committee passed a bill to expel him from the parliament in May.

However, the bill was rejected in a 111-134 vote with 14 votes ruled invalid. A two-thirds majority of approval votes is needed to unseat a lawmaker.

Instead, lawmakers passed a measure to ban Kang from attending parliament for a month starting from Sept. 1.

Women’s groups lashed out at the decision. “It is regrettable that fellow lawmakers reaffirmed the criticism that lawmakers embrace faults of their peers,” an association for 51 civic groups said in a statement. “We were disappointed by the lawmakers' irrational judgment.”

Former President Kim Young-sam is the only national legislator in Korean history to have been ousted from parliament. In 1979, Kim, then the opposition leader, was expelled from the National Assembly as part of political oppression by the authoritarian government in power at the time.