The Marmot’s Hole

Well, it seems the Korean Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union (KTU) and the Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) have crossed the line, as far at the government is concerned:

Law enforcement authorities have intensified their crackdown on leaders of teachers’ and civic servants’ unions for illegal involvement in politics ahead of the April 15 general elections.

Police on Friday detained the head of a teachers’ union on suspicion of playing a leading role in denouncing the National Assembly’s impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun and supporting the Democratic Labor Party (DLP).

Investigators at Yongdungpo Police Station said Won Young-man, 50, president of the Korean Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union, was taken into police custody for interrogation over his alleged violation of election laws.

Under current laws, teachers and public servants are banned from engaging in politics. Thus they are not allowed to publicly express their support for political parties.

On Monday, however, the teachers’ union, known as Chonkyojo in Korean, announced a plan to stage a campaign for the DLP. The next day, the Korean Government Employees’ Union followed suit by declaring their backing for the party.

After opposition lawmakers passed the impeachment against Roh on March 12, the two unions separately issued statements calling for the nullification of the motion.

The move by the two unions touched off controversy over their members’ political neutrality and independence.

Now, ordinarily, I’d be delighted to see KTU leaders heading to the sin bin — certainly, the past behavior of union members (”peace education,” anyone?) would have warranted a crack down, or at least teachers loosing their jobs. Moreover, I have no doubt the union’s plans for “general election classes,” while not illegal in and of themselves, will turn into something ugly if the union’s past is anything to go by. But here’s the catch — I’m not really sure that they actually violated election laws, at least in this case. I went over to the KTU’s website and read what they had to say, and to be frank, the union’s explanations weren’t all that unreasonable. As far as the statement against the impeachment was concerned, said the KTU, such a statement was not necessarily a sign of support for any particular party (indeed, if the union supports any particular party, it’s not the pro-Roh Uri Party, but the Democratic Labor Party, which made it known today that it will focus its attention on the Uri Party during the general election campaign period). So it would seem, at least legally speaking, that the statement didn’t violate election laws, although a) I’m not a lawyer, so don’t take my word for it; and b) the Central Election Committee, which I’ll assume is staffed with lawyers, said the statement was a violation, so I guess that trumps what either I or the KTU thinks. Now, if the union actually did endorse the DLP, as suggested by the English language press and much of the Korean language press (and, judging from this OhMyNews piece, the DLP itself), then we have a problem, and a big one (although let me state for the record that I’m no fan of Korean election laws, which seem rather Byzantine at best). Clearly, the KGEU did this, although they claim the the political neutrality clause only applies to higher-ranking civil servants who make policy decisions. Moreover, a group composed of 68 organizations — including the KTU and KGEU — held a press conference in front of the Central Government Complex on Wednesday in which the group said it would officially support the DLP. And, if you go to the KTU homepage, there is a sidebar banner image linking to the DLP homepage, which would seem to suggest that the union is, indeed, supporting the DLP. The union released a statement (which can be found on its homepage) after the Central Election Committee called them on this, however, saying that the union was simply relaying to its members the decision of its parent union — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions — to endorse the DLP. Again, if this is the case, it wouldn’t seem to be a violation of election laws in and of itself, although one can argue their participation in Wednesday’s press conference AND the fact that the DLP image is still on their homepage represents “support for a particular political party,” which would be a violation of said laws and open up some interesting questions concerning the limits of political freedom as it applies to civil servants.

Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is while the KTU seems to be cutting things rather close, I’m not quite sure if they’ve actually broken any laws. Of course, the fact that the Central Election Committee says they have might make this a moot point, but still, the issues raised seem rather interesting and probably require closer scrutiny.