The ruling and opposition party lawmakers will put their heads together later this week to discuss ways to root out violence within the National Assembly, which has been stained with repeated annual physical bouts over bill passage, party officials said Monday.
The proposed meeting comes on the heels of mounting criticism against scenes of brawls and scuffles between lawmakers in the assembly room over the passage of controversial budget bills last month. Following the ruling Grand National Party (GNP)-controlled assembly ended in ugly scenes of physical altercations, a group of moderate junior GNP members declared that they will not engage in physical clashes in the future and launched a meeting to make legal framework to prevent legislators from using force to pass or block bills.
Rep. Nam Kyung-pil, one of members of the meeting, said he and other members are pushing to have an informal gathering with opposition lawmakers on Friday to discuss plans to propose related bills.
One of the suggested bills is a Korean-style filibuster rule that would allow a lawmaker speaking out to delay a bill if one-fifth of legislators attending a standing committee or a general session call for it, according to officials. With opposition from two-thirds of participating lawmakers, the speaker should discontinue the long address, they noted.
Another bill calls for restricting parliamentary chairperson from using his or her power to lay out bills only limited to cases related to national disasters or emergencies, officials added.
Opposition lawmakers agreed that bipartisan cooperation is needed to improve wrongful practices in the National Assembly.
"From now on, ruling and opposition party lawmakers who agreed to purify (the parliament) should meet together with sincerity to come to fruition," Rep. Jeong Jang-seon of main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said.