LDP's election should be focused on reform

TOKYO: The LDP has drifted so far that this statement has become self-evident: Japan needs prompt reform in every respect. And the Liberal Democratic Party has been standing in the way of such reform.

The Liberal Democratic Party has decided to prepare for a party presidential election even though Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, the party's current president, has not yet formally declared he will quit.

Several prominent members of the party have been broached as potential candidates, but no one has yet declared. When people close to the potential candidates press them to run or express support, either the candidates or leaders of their party factions deny their candidacy. They cast and retrieve these straws to see which way the wind blows.

Factions courting other factions, behind-the-scenes negotiations and fancy Japanese-style restaurants (ryotei) -- does the LDP intend to select its leader with these same props yet again? There is no sign the party is prepared to change.

The president of the LDP will become prime minister unless there is a change in the structure of the ruling coalition. We would thus like to see the party establish some minimum conditions.

One is that the party should not have a two-tier power structure. This is a legacy of the faction once led by former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and subsequently used by the faction when led by former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita. In this ploy, if a big faction does not have a strong candidate of its own, it recommends the leader or No. 2 of another faction and engineers his election as party president based on the number of seats it controls. The dominant faction, having elected the president in this way, never allows him to have real power.

After Takeshita resigned as prime minister in 1989, his faction propelled Sosuke Uno and Toshiki Kaifu to the post in succession. The faction then controlled the party and unabashedly conducted politics at its pleasure. Uno and Kaifu were disposable prime ministers, nominated as seat warmers at the convenience of the Takeshita faction. Does the largest faction led by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto intend to use the same approach? Such a ploy can no longer stand.

Our second condition is that the LDP leader be someone who can present a clear guideline for national politics. Keizo Obuchi and Yoshiro Mori, the two most recent prime ministers, were presented as "moderators" of conflicting interests. The effects of such choices are obvious to all.

An innocuous politician who is all things to all people and who will not engage in a conflict with any faction cannot reform the party. Such a politician would be even more intolerable if he seeks the LDP presidency then proclaims an incongruous, haphazard platform out of the blue. A politician with convictions and insight should be chosen to lead the party.

Finally, the winner of the party's presidential election must have a free hand. What is stopping reform? Heizo Takenaka, a professor of economics at Keio University, said in an Asahi Shimbun interview published Thursday that "important policies are decided not at Cabinet meetings but by Shizuka Kamei, chairman of the Policy Research Council, and handful of other politicians." If party leaders stick their noses into policy matters on behalf of their supporters, the party's president -- the prime minister -- can do nothing of significance.

The ruling parties should select the prime minister and Cabinet ministers from among their best members and allow them to conduct domestic and foreign policies at will. The parties should restrict themselves to administration of Diet affairs as they pertain to implementing policy and preparing for elections.

It is important to have a clear distinction between the role of government and the role of the ruling parties and that party reform be carried out to avoid distorting the policymaking process.

The LDP has drifted so far that this statement has become self-evident: Japan needs prompt reform in every respect. And the Liberal Democratic Party has been standing in the way of such reform.

With the election of a new party president as an opportunity, the LDP should change its entire character, which is most notable for influence-peddling.

Reform should not be simply for the benefit of the party. If nothing happens, Japan will disintegrate, and the LDP will be the cause.

-- The Asahi Shimbun