Chapter 44 Removal of the President
Kim Kyung-han took advantage of the time lag in the arrest of Lee Kun-hee and his family to at least buy himself a 24-hour window period, during which no one could have access to Lee Kun-hee and other family members without permission, and there was no way to talk about legal aid, and no matter how good the lawyers were, they could not intervene without the client's signature. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info
The brazen action of the consortium coalition won over the majority in the parliament, initiated the impeachment of the president, and restrained the hands and feet of President Roh Moo-hyun of Cheong Wa Dae, another of Lee's major allies, so that he did not have any chance to issue a presidential decree, or remove Kim Kyung-han himself from the post of minister of justice, or sign a decree to amnesty Lee Kun-hee himself.
There is a war in the Ministry of Justice, and there is an even more fierce conflict in the Parliament.
Kang Jae-sook, the leader of South Korea's Grand National Party, who was speaking, pointed the finger at the incumbent President Roh Moo-hyun and threw out some key evidence provided by SK Group, and he shouted frantically, "Distinguished parliamentarians, please see how this Mr. President, elected by our people, repays those supporters, who have privately reaped tens of millions of dollars in the past five years under the banner of democracy, and even his son, who is studying in the United States, lives in a luxury villa worth millions of dollars!" If it weren't for the help of well-meaning citizens who provided this evidence, I'm afraid we would still be in the dark by now. ”
For a time, members of the Grand National Party, who occupied the majority of seats in the parliament, spoke out to denounce Roh Moo-hyun himself and strongly demanded that he step down directly.
The lawmakers who were the basis of Roh Moo-hyun's rule were instantly divided into two factions when the people participated in the unification of the New Party (later renamed the Open Nationalist ~ Kuomintang Party, and the former was taken as the shielded word).
Among them, Chung Dong-yong, the former party chairman and current member of the National Assembly, who is a staunch supporter of the Roh Moo-hyun government, is very indignant, and he keeps accusing those members of the big National Party of having selfish intentions and spreading rumors, and behind him are about 50 or 60 lawmakers, but these people are obviously alone.
Of the 299 seats in the National Assembly, only 146 seats were held by the National People's Participation in the United New Party, while less than 60 people were strong supporters of Roh Moo-hyun, which is still far from the one-third of the seats that vetoed the impeachment.
At the critical moment, the attitude of the current party chairman Kim Jin-tae is very crucial, behind him, there are about 80 lawmakers of the same party who are holding a wait-and-see attitude, after all, Roh Moo-hyun himself has very good evidence of corruption and bribery and illegal political donations, even Roh Moo-hyun himself has to apologize and bow again and again, trying to get through the confusion for the time being, so that after he gets out, he will talk to Samsung Group and other consortiums that support him to discuss a solution.
However, Roh Moo-hyun may not have expected that at this time, when others were questioned in the parliament, the outside world turned upside down.
Kang Jae-she, one of the participants in the plan, took advantage of his opposition party's majority in parliament to set the tone for emergency closed-door consultations before the meeting began, cutting off communications between Roh Moo-hyun and others and the outside world, creating a gap between the Blue House and the Samsung Group, and facilitating SK and other foundations.
But even so, Roh Moo-hyun knows that it will be difficult for him to get out, he can only rely on Kim Jintae's attitude, if the other party fully supports him as he did in 2004, then he has a chance to get out of the way today.
According to South Korean law, the parliament has the right to impeach and remove the president, and only more than one-third of the members of the parliament need to initiate a proposal and obtain the consent of more than two-thirds of all the members of the parliament to directly remove the president.
Originally, judging from the strength of the Grand National Party and the New Party in parliament, Roh Moo-hyun was not at risk of being ousted, because the opposition party did not hold more than two-thirds of the seats.
As the basic force of his administration, although the New Party does not occupy half of the seats in Parliament, it is still not weak, and in the past, he was basically able to get unanimous support on some key issues, and some members of the Grand National Party who were corrupted and co-opted were able to pass the bill smoothly.
However, since the New Party suffered a crushing defeat in the national and local elections last year, his close confidant Chung Dong-yong was forced to resign as party chairman and replaced him with Kim Jin-tae, another powerful faction in the party.
If the Samsung Group is still stable, these are not a big deal, after all, there are many figures supported by the Samsung Group in the Grand National Party, and they will still support Roh Moo-hyun at critical moments.
But now, with Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee arrested, and the SK Consortium and LG Consortium intervening to take the initiative, a large number of lawmakers have been provoked to directly point the finger at President Roh Moo-hyun, who has been inactive in the five years since he became the Blue House.
For a time, even the New Party's own legislators stayed out of the matter and looked lively, and most of them went with the flow, and their hearts were secretly dissatisfied with the Roh Moo-hyun government, so they did not come forward to pull the president who was elected by their own party.
"Please listen to me explain, I can explain all these so-called evidence. On the one hand, Roh Moo-hyun firmly denied this so-called evidence, and on the other hand, he tried to persuade the congressmen of his party to try to persuade them to let the parliament first bankrupt the impeachment against him, otherwise once he lost the presidency, then he would be in prison for a long time.
South Korean Prime Minister Han Deok-so, who was standing beside him and also explained loudly, was originally the second head of the country, he should be handling official business in his official residence, but the law unvoluntarily stipulates that once the president is impeached and removed, as the prime minister, he must take over the power as soon as possible and continue to lead the country.
As early as 2003, when Roh Moo-hyun was impeached and removed from office for the first time, Ko Kyun, who was the prime minister at the time, took the initiative to assume the power of the president, but later, the National Assembly was re-elected, and the opposition party was defeated by the forces supported by the Samsung Group in the election, and Roh Moo-hyun regained the presidency, which led to the direct imprisonment of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won in the follow-up retaliation.
But this time, Han Deok-so, who is a sympathizer and supporter of Samsung Group, was not so lucky, because he was also the target of the consortium's attack, and the evidence that Kang waved in his hand this time also indicated that he also accepted bribes from Samsung Group and other consortiums, which were also as high as millions of dollars.
"I swear, I never know where these so-called evidence came from! This is all out of nothing, it is an insult to my personality, you cannot take the so-called evidence without substantiation, and remove the president and prime minister of a country, this is unfair to us, I ask that a third party intervene in the investigation, and I and President Roh Moo-hyun are cleared!" Han Deok-so was surrounded by angry lawmakers, accusing, but even so, he kept bowing and explaining, and his whole face turned red with excitement and anger.
Kang Zaiyan was furious, "What are you talking about, will we, the congressmen, wronged you? Long before the impeachment, we authorized the Ministry of Justice to obtain evidence of your bribery through 12 banks, shouldn't you explain the $1.86 million in your account and more than 1 billion won in illegal income?"
Han Dezhu knew at this time that he must not admit any problem, otherwise he would die a miserable death, and if he did not admit it, at least there was room for relaxation, once he got out, he believed that the Samsung Group would never sit idly by, so he responded with his head held high, "This is a false accusation by some malicious competitors, I never knew that there would be such a sum of money on my account, you don't want to frame me! I asked an independent third party to immediately intervene in the investigation, and I refused to resign until the investigation was inconclusive." ”
"We don't need your resignation, now is the time to demand your recall, just parliamentarians, are you willing to accept a prime minister who is insatiable and gives away the country's resources to the consortium? Do you want a president who is innocent in front of the people and makes a lot of money in the future? Remove them, and the corrupt ~ filthy ones will step down immediately!" Kang Jae-she, who had already been briefed by SK Group, waved his hand and roared, which immediately attracted the support of countless people.
Even so, he still pursued closely, because he knew that the operation in the outside world had been carried out very smoothly, and if Roh Moo-hyun could not be suspended immediately today, then as soon as he went out, he would immediately sign an amnesty for Lee Kun-hee himself, which absolutely could not be faulted in legal theory, because the president has the right to pardon any criminal, especially when this criminal is still the leader of a consortium, and even the people will not oppose this amnesty.
And once Lee Kun-hee escapes, then the Samsung Group will become a whole under his banner, as an intact consortium, Samsung's horror is known to everyone, once this empire puts all its energy on itself, no one can resist, and even fail because of it.
Kang Jae-shek knows what kind of damage his actions will cause to the Samsung Group, so he has no way out, if he can't defeat Roh Moo-hyun, then the Samsung Group will definitely make him cry ugly.
In the past, no one would have even approved of his proposal, but now, not only the MPs of the Grand National Party itself, but also the members of the rival New Party, are loudly agreeing with it, because most of them have been told by the forces behind them that at this moment, it is not just a life-and-death war between SK Group and Samsung Group.
It is also the CJ Group, LG Group, Hyundai Group and the more powerful American consortium that intervened at the same time, even the lawmakers who originally stood in the Samsung camp must think carefully, once they fight with these people, then who wins and who loses?
Samsung may be exempt from punishment because of its own strength, but once so many consortiums and alliances exert their strength, it will not be too easy to clean up one or two parliamentarians who oppose them.
Coupled with the just right silence of the Samsung Group behind them at this time, they were even more sure that the situation was as they expected, under the pressure of so many consortiums, Samsung may have given in, and the price is just an abandoned president.
As a result, the New Party split instantly, and only a few people still followed behind Roh Moo-hyun, but they were alone and could no longer make any waves.
Soon, the results of the no-confidence impeachment votes against the incumbent President Roh Moo-hyun and the incumbent Prime Minister Han Duck-so came out, and more than two-thirds of the 299-seat National Assembly voted in favor of impeachment with immediate effect, while those who abstained and those who opposed it were almost the same, with about 40 votes each, but these people were irrelevant.
"I now announce that President Roh Moo-hyun and Prime Minister Han Duck-so have been suspended for investigation for corruption and inaction, as well as for accepting illegal political donations, and that the decision of the National Assembly's Judicial Investigation Committee will be submitted to the Supervisory Department and the court for investigation and judgment, and I now declare the impeachment case in effect. As soon as the voting results were counted, Jiang Zaishe couldn't wait to laugh.
In stark contrast to the ashen Han Deok-so, the expressionless Roh Moo-hyun, because he knows that the reason why the hostile forces suddenly intervened against him at the time of the presidential election is probably to deal with the Samsung Group behind him, but will Samsung, who is only covering the sky in South Korea, watch the farce of these people play out?
He is sure that if he is investigated after leaving the presidency, then the Samsung Group is unlikely to help again, after all, he will not have much use value by then, and it is not worth the Samsung Group to protect desperately, but now, his presidential term will not be handed over until four months in law.
During this period of time, once he is impeached, then the Samsung Group will definitely try to rescue him for its own interests.
However, just as Roh Moo-hyun was sad on the surface and relaxed in his heart, the victor Kang Jae-shee came to his side with a smile on his face and whispered, "Are you still dreaming that Samsung Group will definitely come to rescue you? To tell you the truth, Lee Kun-hee has been arrested, and he is waiting for your rescue as president." Oh, yes, I'm sorry! I forgot you're not president anymore. ”
This remark instantly shocked Roh Moo-hyun, and his heart almost collapsed, "No, I won't fall for you, you're deceiving me!"
But the next moment, the door after the closed-door consultation was opened, and a close confidant of the president rushed to his side in a panic and said hurriedly, "Mr. President, Mr. Li, the chairman of Samsung Group, was arrested by the Ministry of Justice and is now waiting for your pardon order." ”
"Pardon?!" Roh Moo-hyun laughed bitterly, looking at the cold-eyed parliamentarians around him, he lost all his strength and sat on the ground like a puddle of mud, unable to get up again.