Bang! Bang! Where are my feet?

Mikio Aoki, Secretary General of the Upper House members of the "Liberal" "Democratic" "Party" which has had a stranglehold on Japanese politics for over 50 years, has just successfully managed to dispel any lingering illusions that the second word of the LDP's English title has any validity.

Speaking about the planned election of a new Party President (and hence a new Prime Minister), Aoki argued against an selection by the members of the Party, saying that it would "take too long" to conduct such an election. In fact, the rank and file Party members throughout the country have been demanding a greater say of the process of electing a new leader. Aoki's words are therefore likely to confirm the suspicion which has been harbored for so long, that the Party is a law unto itself.

That's one foot gone

And then he said that openness in choosing a new Party leader was not of prime importance (and don't forget this new leader will be the Prime Minister -- the nominal head of the world's second largest economy). Of course, this kind of idea is not strange to Aoki -- he was one of the Gang of Five who met in a hotel room and secretly decided to introduce the hapless Mori to replace the stroke-afflicted Obuchi after declaring himself Prime Minister, and claiming, with no evidence, that the helpless Obuchi had given his assent to this coup d'etat, and subsequently being forced to retract this claim under pressure. This kind of secret power game is definitely terra cognita to Aoki.

The trouble is as far as Mr. Aoki is concerned, that the media has been increasingly critical of the shoddy, sneaky ways in which the Party has done its work up to now. And the public has been getting more and more sick and tired of it.

Or has he been too busy taking care of business as usual, in the same way as his erstwhile protege and fellow-member of the Gang of Five Masakuni Murakami, who is currently under arrest on suspicion of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars for peddling his influence?

And the other one!

	Maybe Mr. Aoki really believes that Japan should be ruled by elderly politicians who are appointed by shady little cabals. After all, that's the way that Japan's been ruled for the past 50 years. But the trouble is, when the chips are down, it doesn't work. It didn't work for the Soviet Union, either. It may be a little early to think of a violent revolution, but patience is running thin. The Party old guard, though, seem just as wilfully blind as the Soviet apparatchiks who seemed to be actually unable to understand why anyone could possibly be against them and all they stood for. Let's hope that the Japanese people can actually wake up at the elections and demand a real alternative to the self-seeking money-driven corruption that has successfully emasculated this country since the War.

Hugh Ashton, 2001 hugh@j-views.com
2001/05/12