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发表于 2010-12-10 10:22:29
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VOX POPULI: The Kan administration's failure is no joke
2010/12/08
In the old days, freak show visitors were an easygoing lot. Punters timidly peering into a tent that supposedly contained "a three-eyed monster with two big teeth" would find themselves staring at a "geta," a type of sandal elevated from the ground by two pieces of wood and with three connections to its fabric thong. People entering a tent with a barker outside shouting "Come and see an 'o-itachi' (giant weasel)!" would find a large board with red ink. Board is "ita" in Japanese and the red ink was supposed to be "chi" (blood). Instead of getting angry, customers would laugh at the puns. I read about it in "Meiji no Omokage" (Vestiges of Meiji) by Kinsho Outei (1868-1954).
It has been a little more than a year since voters, hearing to shouts of "Come and see 'seiken kotai' (a regime change)," entered a tent, filled with expectation. There are two words with the pronunciation "kotai" in Japanese. One means "change" and the other means "retreat." What the voters have found is a government in full retreat. The barkers might claim they have delivered what they promised--"This is the real seiken kotai (retreating government)"--but no voter would find the pun funny.
The Cabinet of Naoto Kan hits the six-month mark Wednesday. Clumsy handling of the Futenma base relocation issue, political funding problems, the Democratic Party of Japan's crushing defeat in the July Upper House election, the intra-party rift over the DPJ presidential election and a spate of gaffes by Cabinet members are some of the blots on its copybook. It is following a path to self-destruction. The administration is in such a woeful state that it cannot even summon Ichiro Ozawa, who calls himself a "rank-and-file member" of the party, to the Diet.
National security crises near the Senkaku Islands and on the Korean Peninsula have left the administration in confusion. It has shown no determination to deal firmly with these problems. Overall, I get the impression that the DPJ is an emasculated version of the Liberal Democratic Party, with the same lingering diseases. Things are not looking good for the economy, finance, employment and welfare.
Kan reflected on the past six months, saying, "I failed to adequately get my message across because I was too busy." He should not blame his busy schedule. As far as I know, no other prime minister has been given so many chances to demonstrate his ability to lead in a six-month period since taking office. Kan has repeatedly struck out. He hasn't even tried to swing.
Half of the public must be disappointed by the administration's failure. The other half must feel it was just as they feared. If it were a freak show, they might laugh at being tricked again by a false sign. But the gallery of national politics is filled with angry calls of "Give us our money back!" In this rapidly changing world, with giant waves buffeting Japan, we should demand that the administration give us back our lost time.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 7 |
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