The Asahi Shimbun
The ruling coalition has perpetrated an intolerable act. Over an opposition boycott, members of ruling parties in the special committee of the Lower House deliberating three military emergency bills voted Tuesday to set dates for public hearings on the legislation. Public hearings are a precondition for the bills to clear the committee. The ruling coalition is determined to get the bills through the Lower House before the end of this month and enact them in the current Diet session.
The public is uncomfortable with this highly controversial legislation. We concede some sort of preparation is necessary to deal with military emergencies, and we have repeatedly insisted that the nature of the legislation demands thorough scrutiny and debate. We cannot possibly condone the ruling coalition moving to bypass debate to ram the bills through the Diet.
We lay the blame for this outrage squarely upon the LDP's Tsutomu Kawara, chairman of the Lower House committee. Of course blame is shared by New Komeito, the coalition partner which effectively recanted its earlier policy of winning public understanding through debate.
The committee started deliberating on the bills May 7. So far, that has taken up just 32 hours and 30 minutes.
When interpretation of the concept of ``emergencies in areas surrounding Japan'' drew controversy three years ago regarding Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines, Lower House special committee deliberations and hearings chalked up 93 hours. Earlier and similarly controversial bills to involve Self-Defense Forces in the United Nations-led peacekeeping operations took up a total of 89 hours of deliberation. In comparison, time spent on the war-preparedness legislation seems scant indeed.
The Lower House special committee has not even defined ``situations in which Japan is under armed attack.'' And the legislation to protect Japanese lives and property-relegated to the back burner-has gotten no further than coalition mumblings about ``studying it in the future.'' We can only guess what life will be like by piecing together what the government has said so far about ``restrictions on outings'' and ``setting standard prices for food and other commodities.'' We are unnerved by the anachronism of such things as government price controls and rationing.
The Asahi Shimbun found in a recent survey that 70 percent of those responding felt Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet has failed to adequately explain the nature of the proposed legislation. Even among LDP supporters, a majority said they felt this way.
This is truly significant legislation that will affect the nation's course. It demands much greater care in deliberation and far more support from the public than other bills. This is in no way something that should be hastily passed into law while most people don't even know what it is all about.
The Diet will close in less than a month. While the LDP is hinting of a possible extension in line with Cabinet reshuffle, people have become thoroughly disillusioned with politics in the face of nonstop scandals and misgivings. It seems almost criminal that the ruling coalition would try to ram war legislation through the Diet under these circumstances.
After all, these three pieces of legislation were shoddily made to begin with. Had it not been for the unnaturally high popularity of the Koizumi Cabinet at the outset, the bills probably would not have even been put before the Diet. As we have repeated time and again, this legislation was drafted under the Cold War premise of Japan being subject to a massive armed invasion.
As the coalition tries harder to force the bills through the Diet, the defects and inconsistencies of the legislation become that much more obvious. Opposition parties dare not permit this outrage, regardless of where they stand on the principle of the legislation itself. If the ruling parties get their way, our nation would have to pay a tremendous bill some time in the future.
The Asahi Shimbun, May 22(IHT/Asahi: May 23,2002)