MikeLigalig.com

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the nationalist leader whose vision of an unapologetically strong Japan sank amid scandals, incompetence and gaffes, announced Wednesday that he would step down.

The timing of the resignation took Japan by surprise. Even though Abe's governing Liberal Democratic Party suffered a humiliating defeat in an upper house election over the summer, he had steadfastly refused to resign and had reshuffled his cabinet less than two weeks ago.

Abe's resignation came only three days after the start of a current parliamentary session. In a speech at the start of the session on Monday and in news conferences, Abe had laid out plans for the future, including extending a law to allow Japan's naval forces to participate in a mission in the Indian Ocean.

But as the parliamentary session started and the newly powerful main opposition Democratic Party showed no signs of yielding to Abe on this law, the situation looked increasingly bleak for Abe, and Japan's media had already written him off.

"I determined that I should resign," Abe said at a news conference this afternoon. Referring to the law on the Indian Ocean mission, he added: "We should seek a continued mission to fight terrorism under a new prime minister."

Abe also said that he found it difficult to regain the public's trust. His approval ratings, which had temporarily risen above 30 percent after his cabinet reshuffle, fell below that threshold again after Abe's new agricultural minister resigned over misuse of public funds only a week after his appointment.

Japan is likely to enter a period of political flux with Abe's departure.

Abe said he had instructed his party to choose a successor "as soon as possible." Because his party has a huge majority in the lower house of Parliament, which selects the prime minister, the next prime minister will be a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The secretary general of the party, Taro Aso, who served as foreign minister until recently, is widely considered the front runner to succeed Abe.

Any successor would not have to dissolve parliament and call a general election until 2009, but will most likely face intense pressure to do so in the near future. The main opposition Democratic Party will be able to use its control of the upper house of Parliament to delay and block legislation, effectively forcing the governing party to call a general election and ask for a popular mandate.

The opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa, has focused his attention on a contentious law that allows Japan's naval forces to join a mission to refuel American and other ships participating in the war in Afghanistan. The law will expire on Nov. 1 unless it is extended.

The debate over the law is expected to be bruising. Opinion polls have shown that most Japanese opposed extending the law. And Ozawa tapped into a general unease that, under Abe and his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, Japan had grown too close to the United States militarily, even to the point of possibly violating its pacifist Constitution.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Japan has passed special laws to circumvent its pacifist Constitution to participate in the American-led wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq. But the Japanese government has released few details about the nature of its assistance to the United States military, leading many opposition politicians to suggest that Japanese troops are in fact violating the Constitution.

Opposition politicians have suggested that Japan has refueled American vessels that were involved, not in Afghanistan, but in Iraq. In addition, they have said that Japan's air force — which has been transporting American troops between Kuwait and Baghdad — has clearly overstepped its stated mission of engaging in humanitarian activities.

Opposition politicians are expected to use their new power in the upper house of Parliament to demand more information about these military missions.

Norimitsu Onishi
www.iht.com

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Sa atoa, Mike kay paba gaay man!

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Gihimong panginabuhian o negosyo ang politika. Ambot gani ug kahibalo ba sila unsay meaning sa "public servant"

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Kung mangluwa na sila, manotpik, manghuy-ab - the people of the Republic of the Philippines will be paying them with millions of pesos.

I know that in every country, naay mga corrupt. Reality na ni siya. Kaso lang, for example, sa Thailand naay corruption but naay makita.

Sa ato kay grabe pabagaay ug nawong - millions of pesos or billions but all are ghostly imaginations written on accomplishment documents (kono).

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Treat them as your relatives, loved ones, kadugo. Don't think of them as politicians.

After all, blood is thicker than water.

If they do something wrong, there is God who will bring justice to all.

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A number of prime ministers in Japan resign rather than face a vote of no confidence in the Diet, their legislative body.

This was a prospect that Shinzo Abe faced after his three successive appointees at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery resigned one after another due to slush fund scandals. (The amount of misuse of money that constitutes a "scandal" in Japan is a laughable piddling compared to the kurakot even in our local governments. The amount is almost irrelevant--it is the act of betrayal of public trust.)

With muck in his trail, Abe could not simply push his agenda of extending the participation of Japan's naval forces in the Indian Ocean mission before the Diet.

Likewise, Japanese prime ministers seriously take mid-term elections as a barometer of mandate. Abe's Liberal Democratic Party lost miserably in the last House of Councillors' (equivalent to our Senate) elections. Compare this with Arroyo's indifference to the results of the last Senatorial elections.

Shinzo Abe brandished the construction of "Beautiful Japan" as his slogan. Though far from perfect, the beauty of Japan's governmental system is that it is not dependent on personalities and politicians, but on its institutions. In fact, like Abe, most of Japan's politicians have lackluster personalities--with the exception of Nakasone and Koizumi who had charisma to the masses.

As far as I can recall, most of Japan's prime ministers stepped down from the helm by resignation, without causing any palpable ripples to the society at large. Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo died while in office, and there was a power vacuum in the highest office for almost a week. But no tanks rolled, no rowdy power struggle among political contenders...

Japan's efficient bureaucracy can run the country even when its politics is in turmoil--as when the prime minister steps down or the parliament is dissolved.

When can the Philippines have semblance of institutional stability?

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Mike,

I think we should all learn from and absorb the good things about our host societies and at the right time, try to apply those that fit our political culture.

I am aware that Thailand is also very much in flux, its modern history checkered by even more coups than our country, the last one being against Thaksin Shinawatra.

The King, I understand is a providing a measure of stability to the dynamic polity. When he goes, I wonder what will happen.

Every leader's legacy should be the strengthening of democratic institutions. Politicians, being just transient occupants of office, should follow the house rules and build enhancements only to reinforce the foundations of democracy.

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