Human Rights Advocates Defend Yong Hye-in Over Satellite-Party Controversy, Drawing Sharp Rebuke

A dispute over satellite parties has widened around Basic Income Party lawmaker Yong Hye-in, who was nominated as minister of gender equality and family.

Human rights advocate Park Rae-goon and Father Song Kyeong-yong said Yong had been an outstanding lawmaker who stood beside socially disadvantaged people and minorities. They warned against combing through the past of a politician in her 30s and condemning her so severely that both her dignity and political future would be damaged.

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A satellite party was one survival strategy that small parties had no choice but to adopt.

The two defended the Basic Income Party’s decision to join a satellite party during the last general election. They said the term “satellite party” and the argument that such parties received a free ride deserved consideration, but added that the arrangement could also be understood as a survival strategy for a small party operating in a political system dominated by two major parties.

Yong said last month that she would not give up her proportional-representation seat even if she became minister. She said her resignation would leave the Basic Income Party, whose only lawmaker she is, without a parliamentary presence. If she steps down, the seat would pass to former Roh Moo-hyun Foundation secretary-general Ko Jae-soon of the Democratic Party.

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We remember lawmaker Yong Hye-in as someone who stood beside socially disadvantaged people and minorities.

Park and Song urged that Yong be given the opportunity to appear at a confirmation hearing, saying they hoped the chance to see a young minister in her 30s would not disappear. Jang Hye-young, a former Justice Party lawmaker, responded that several small parties had survived and continued operating without joining satellite parties. She accused parts of civil society of ignoring or participating in what she described as a contradiction: speaking for democracy and human rights while defending conduct that undermines democracy.

The Justice Party refused to participate in satellite parties in the 21st and 22nd general elections. Satellite parties are proportional-representation vehicles created by major parties under the semi-linked proportional system introduced in the 21st election, allowing larger parties to seek additional seats.

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It is astonishing that such a brazen distortion can be made in the name of civil society.