National Assembly should axe secret ballot

By Jay Kim

Last Thursday, Sept. 11, 2001, was the 13th anniversary of one of the most terrible tragedies in U.S. history. Terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. killed 3,000 innocent people, and 125 policemen and firefighters died trying to rescue victims. That night, President Bush addressed the nation and assured a frightened public that the U.S. would find those responsible for the terrorist attacks, no matter where they were hiding, and bring them to justice. Support for Bush, whose popularity was dismal at the time, exploded to more than 90 percent. Not one person called for his resignation as a way to make him accept responsibility for the attacks. New York City mayor at the time, Rudolph Giuliani, showed his leadership, encouraging and supporting policemen and firefighters at the site. His popularity soared sky high, and he was even considered as a presidential candidate for the next election.

The Stars and Stripes flew across the country in honor of the victims, people wore black ribbons on their chests in mourning, and “God Bless America” banners were raised everywhere. The unity was no less than what would be expected from one of the world’s top countries. Of course, there was also severe economic damage. Stock markets in New York City were closed for one week, and U.S. stocks plunged. More than 430,000 jobs were lost in New York City alone, a loss of $2.8 billion in wages just in three weeks. Tourism also noticeably decreased. The federal government put into the city a total of $21.7 billion, $11.2 billion immediately and $10.5 billion early in 2002. Because people trusted Congress and supported the administration, the nation worked together to get everything back in order in just three months.

On Sept. 16, 2014, five months will have passed since the Sewol disaster. As nothing has been resolved in the last few months while the incident has been used politically more and more, the tragedy has now paralyzed the National Assembly. Grieving families are still suffering and protesting at the tent in Gwanghwamun Square, and opposition lawmakers have abandoned the National Assembly to protest in the street, raising banners demanding that President Park Geun-hye deal with the issues surrounding the “Sewol Act.”

While pending bills concerning people’s livelihoods have been piling up in the National Assembly, a motion to arrest National Assembly member Song Kwang-ho was voted down by his fellow lawmakers, who guaranteed they would deal with the motion in a principled way rather than hold a “bulletproof” session to protect their own through immunity from arrest.

There is a similar law for members of Congress in the U.S. as well, but it is intended to protect their congressional activities by guaranteeing their freedom. I have never seen a case where a U.S. congressman protected himself using his immunity from arrest instead of voluntarily going to the prosecutor’s office to prove his innocence. Furthermore, if the case involved a serious crime like bribery, the immunity would be denied by a unanimous vote at a general meeting of the U.S. Congress.

James Traficant was a U.S. House Representative from Ohio. He was a star quarterback in college, and a very popular figure in the House. Though Traficant, who emphasized law and order, was a Democrat, he was also popular with Republicans as he often supported Republican bills as well. Unfortunately, he was convicted of bribery and racketeering. Taking bribes using one’s position as a House Representative was an unacceptable disgrace to the House.

On July 24, 2002, the House voted on a resolution to expel Traficant. He made a final appeal to his fellow Representatives before the vote, but lost his seat by an overwhelming 420-1 vote in favor of his expulsion. At the time of the vote, the mood of the House was all gloom, and some members wept. After the vote, the press asked members who were close to Traficant why they voted for his expulsion. One of them replied in sorrow, “Today is the saddest day. I beg for God’s forgiveness as I voted for the resolution to permanently expel from Congress a hero who I liked so much and loved like my brother. But the country and the people should come before my personal friendship, and it was a choice to protect the honor of Congress.”

If members of the National Assembly thought that they should put the country and honor of the Assembly before anything else, they would not have granted immunity from arrest to the fellow lawmaker. It is not right to put the motion for arrest to a secret vote. If the National Assembly respects people’s right to know, it should let people know how its members vote by having a non-secret ballot for any matters on which it votes. Each lawmaker should reveal his or her votes in the Assembly to the people, taking responsibility for how he or she voted.

There is no secret ballot in the U.S. Congress. It does not seem honorable to hide behind the secret ballot or immunity from arrest. As they are part of the highest institution that represents the people, National Assembly members should honorably give up their immunity from arrest, should get rid of the secret ballot, and should focus only on law-making inside the Assembly.

Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He is chairman of the Kim Chang Joon U.S.-Korea Foundation. For more information, visit Kim's website at www.jayckim.com.