World record set for longest filibuster

Rep. Cho Won-jin, left, vice floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, spars with Lee Seok-hyun, vice speaker of the National Assembly, over a filibuster speech being given by Rep. Kim Kyung-hyup of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, Friday. Opposition lawmakers continued to filibuster the Assembly plenary session for the fourth consecutive day to block a vote on a disputed anti-terrorism bill. / Yonhap

By Rachel Lee

South Korean opposition parties set a new world record for the longest filibuster, Friday, continuing their speeches for the fourth consecutive day to protest an anti-terrorism bill pushed by the ruling party.

The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) began the filibuster Tuesday at 7:07 p.m. to block a vote on the disputed anti-terrorism bill after Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa exercised his authority to put it to a vote. Minor opposition parties later joined the filibuster.

The previous world record was Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) that orchestrated a filibuster session for two days and 10 hours in 2011 to prevent the passing of a bill ordering Canada Post employees back to work. The bill was introduced after Canada Post locked out its employees following a series of rotating strikes as talks between the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and Canada Post collapsed. Despite the filibuster, the bill was passed.

Rep. Kim Kwang-jin of the MPK kicked off the first speech for 5 hours and 32 minutes during a plenary session of the National Assembly, followed by Rep. Moon Byeong-ho who gave a speech for an hour and 49 minutes, and Rep. Eun Soo-mi, who delivered a 10 hour and 18 minute long speech, setting a record for the longest speech in South Korean history by a lawmaker.

The ruling Saenuri Party proposed the bill, which aims to give the National Intelligence Service the authority to collect information on private communications, travel and financial transactions of potential terrorists.

The MPK has opposed the bill as it alleges it will allow the spy agency to abuse its power and use the law to monitor civilians and opposition lawmakers.

But the governing party has refused to compromise and carried out a full-scale offensive against the opposition party calling it one of the opposition’s election campaigns ahead of the general election in April.

“The National Assembly hall has turned into a place where candidates do their PR ahead of the general election,” Saenuri party floor leader Won Yoo-chul said. “They are holding a contest to see who lasts the longest, and those who manage to do that will attract attention from the public. The campaign seems successful since some of the legislators making the speeches appear as the most searched topics on the Internet.”

A filibuster is a parliamentary procedure to allow Assembly members to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal through continuous speeches.