Wednesday, August 24 2005 @ 12:20 AM CDT
Contributed by: Y.Yamamoto
Views: 2,666
As a dog returneth to his vomit.....
On Monday, August 22, Iraqi legislators decided to put off a vote on a draft constitution, for the second time.
For months now these people representing Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish populations
at the parliament have been discussing the draft constitution for a new
Iraq. The major sticking points there are such polity issues as whether
to go for a loose federalism or whether to go for a secular statehood.
Geographical maldistribution of oil resources is exacerbating the discord
among the three major tribes.
As a result they have missed the deadline twice by now. But I don't believe
they should be worried too much about lagging behind schedule because these
deadlines for parliamentary deliberation and a subsequent referendum have
been set a little arbitrarily. · read more (600 words)
One of my new year's resolutions for this weblog was, "Stay away from
constitutional debates as far as I can." I am neither pro- nor anti-amendment,
in particular. But certainly I don't want to be part of it in the interest of
either camp because the debates now being fanned by the government and
the media are somewhat reminiscent of the Mao Zedong's Hundred Flowers
movement. Flowers are now in full blossom with different people from every
corner of the nation chirping nonstop for or against the amendment. But
aren't they just trying to smoke out those minority people who harbor ideas
heretical to this homogeneous culture?
My Hundred Flowers campaign analogy here may not be very precise because I don't foresee a fierce anti-leftist campaign will follow the ongoing constitutional debates, just like a savage anti-rightist campaign ensued after Mao, in 1957, ordered to wind up the movement he himself had launched the year before, let alone a merciless blood purge on those hundred flowers, i.e., millions of framed/smoked-out intellectuals. And for better or for worse, there is no prominent leader like Mao in today's Japan. And yet I cannot but see a certain similarity between China in the mid-1950s and today's Japan which cannot emancipate itself from the system masterminded half a century ago by Nobusuke Kishi, one of the Class-A war criminals. It is fairly likely that when the constitutional debates are declared over, we will find ourselves in an even more monolithic, closed, conformist and groupist society.
For quite some time now, the Liberal Democratic Party has made it clear that this year will be the right timing for constitutional amendment because 2005 falls on the 50th anniversary of the 1955 System, while the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition, has eyed the next year for revising the post-WWII "pacifist" Constitution because 2006 falls on its 60th anniversary. In this context the media solemnly declared at the turn of the year that 2005 and 2006 are going to be the years of nation-wide great debates over the amendment issue. Obviously I should have bought myself a pair of earplugs as
a precaution, but it's too late now. Only a little more than one-twelfth
into the first year of the national deliberation, we've already had more than enough. That's why I said to myself: "Why not dump all I have to say, just
for once, and then clam up?" · read more (1,915 words)
Thursday, October 07 2004 @ 03:12 AM CDT
Contributed by: Y.Yamamoto
Views: 2,095
The government, lawmakers and the media have been busy building a nation-wide consensus on the necessity, if not urgency, of a constitutional amendment toward 2005, the time limit the LDP has in mind to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1955 System, or by 2006, the deadline the DPJ has set so it coincides with the 60th anniversary of the current Constitution. · read more (591 words)
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on September 21, Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi said Japan would seek to join the permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council, hand-in-hand with Germany, India and Brazil "to
create a new United Nations for the new era". To elaborate on his
bid for the permanent seat at the UNSC, he stressed the following points
at the General Assembly and the subsequent press conference:
· read more (586 words)
As a dog returneth to his vomit.....