Filibuster as political show (2024)

By Park Moo-jong

A relatively "difficult" English term, filibuster, has been the talk of the town for more than a week, both in terms of positive and negative aspects, as the opposition parties "introduced" it 43 years after it was abolished in1973.

Thirty nine lawmakers took the floor one after another for 192 hours and 25 minutes for nine days from Feb. 23 to Wednesday, Mar. 2, to stall the Anti-Terrorism Bill, which they claim will give too much power to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and result in the invasion of citizens' privacy.

Their filibuster far surpassed the 58-hour session orchestrated by Canada's New Democratic Party in 2011, previously the longest recorded filibuster in history.

As for the individual Korean record, Rep. Lee Jong-kul, floor leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), conducted the longest, at 12 hours and 31 minutes, crying profusely.

Their record exceeded the previously longest non-stop speech by the late Rep. Park Han-sang who stood on the podium for 10 hours and 15 minutes in 1969 to oppose the constitutional revision allowing then President Park Chung-hee to run for his third term.

Dictionaries define that a filibuster is a "parliamentary procedure" where debate over a proposed piece of legislation is extended, allowing one or more members to delay or entirely prevent a vote on the proposal.

It is sometimes referred to as talking out a bill or talking a bill to death and characterized as a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body.

But the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea interprets the term as "indefinite debate" instead of "speech to obstruct proceedings."

The minority camp's decision to conduct a filibuster immediately reminded me of a 1939 American political comedy-drama movie, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," starring James Stewart (1908-1997) and Jean Arthur (1900-1991), directed by Frank Capra (1897-1991) and nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Story.

Political novice Sen. Jefferson Smith (Stewart) launches a filibuster to postpone a bill opposing his earlier bill to build a national boys' camp and talks non-stop for about 24 hours, reaffirming the American ideals of freedom and disclosing the true motives of the bill. He continues his speaking spree by reading the Bible and other books.

Although it was a fiction, Smith's filibuster was a cultural shock to me when I saw the movie maybe in the middle of 1960s. It was something like finding a jewel in the clay. What a great system! Years later, I saw the late opposition lawmaker Rep. Park Han-sang take the floor for his lone non-stop speech.

Now in a non-fiction story, the opposition lawmakers were successful, for now, in attracting the people's, to be more precise, the voters' attention ahead of their party nomination of candidates for the April 13 parliamentary election.

The term, filibuster, and the names of the legislators, became the most searched keywords on Internet portal sites, proving the public's keen interest in the "legal" tool to obstruct parliamentary proceedings.

In particular, the young generation, not to speak of the supporters of the opposition forces, enthusiastically welcomed the parliamentary procedure they experienced apparently for the first time.

However, the lawmakers broke the law about filibuster themselves. Against the provision, they expressed their personal views, which had nothing to do with the agenda, the debate on the government-proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill.

Most speakers spent time reading academic studies, news articles and Internet comments. One lawmaker read extensively from a copy of George Orwell's 1984.

The U.S. law does not restrict the topics of filibuster as seen in James Stewart's reading the Bible during his filibuster, while the Korean speakers are prohibited from debating issues other than those of the agenda. But the legislators, whose prime duty is to make law, did not care about the legal provision.

Certainly in mind were the upcoming general elections, some lawmakers looked as if they were competing with others to speak longer, thus establishing a new record.

For reference, the longest filibuster in history took 24 hours and 18 minutes. James Strom Thurmond (1902-2003), from South Carolina, who served for 48 years in the U.S. Senate and ran for president in 1948, made his filibuster in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Meanwhile, here in Korea in this most recent filibuster, a speaker even sang a song and another shed tears while speaking about his past in the almost empty National Assembly plenary chamber.

The opposition parties misunderstood that they won public support through the unprecedented filibuster.

Yet, the latest poll conducted by the Korea Gallup company shows little change in the popularity rating of the opposition parties in the wake of the filibuster with which their supporters were enthusiastic about on the Internet.

The majority Saenuri Party enjoys an approval rating of 42 percent, while the largest minority Minju Party of Korea recorded 19 percent and the Party of the People 8 percent. Public poll experts say that the filibuster barely influenced popularity ratings.

The opposition parties indeed succeeded in solidifying their bases of support through the filibuster, but failed to get rid of what they claimed were factors that may infringe upon the people's human rights, for they conducted the filibuster for the sake of filibuster.

The rare event that took place for the first time in nearly half a century, only ended as a political show targeting political effects ahead of the general elections. It also proved the incompetence of the ruling party again in the final stage of the worst-ever incumbent National Assembly.

According to Wikipedia, the English term, filibuster, is derived from the Spanish "filibustero," itself deriving originally from the Dutch "vrijbuiter" meaning privateer, pirate, robber (also the root of the English "freebooter").

Park Moo-jong is the advisor to The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily after working as a reporter at the paper from 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.