Muhammad Qodari

Muhammad Qodari
Director of Research
Indonesian Survey Institute
(LSI)
Jakarta
qodari@hotmail.com

2. Blair -- Blair off the hook for now
1 X 45

Kelly inquest: Blair off the hook for now

Polly Toynbee
Guardian News Service
London

3. Asahi -- Japanese should dare to welcome `discontinuity'
1 X 30
pls note revisions in bio at end of article; change 'of' to
'at', delete 'the' before '21st Century'

Japan must dare to break from past

Masayasu Kitagawa
Asahi Shimbun
Tokyo

Baseball fans on both sides of the Pacific just can't take
their eyes off Ichiro of the Seattle Mariners. He has changed the
pro baseball scene so dramatically as to even suggest
"discontinuity" from the "pre-Ichiro" era.

Ichiro has brought a breakthrough to the sport with his highly
original style of play. And his originality is simply a
reflection of his fundamentally unique understanding of baseball.

In putting the present Japanese society in perspective, it is
necessary as well as useful to rethink what is considered
fundamental thought in terms of continuity and discontinuity.

Economic recovery was Japan's foremost political and
administrative priority after its defeat in World War II. The
whole nation strove for economic expansion and growth.

The postwar shortage of goods was so rampant as to make
everyone believe in bottomless demand. So it was only natural
that the government's policy was heavily weighted on the supply
side. This resulted in a system of thorough government protection
of the suppliers and producers, which in turn helped Japan become
a consumers' paradise in less than 40 years.

That was great in itself. The Japanese struggled to get over
the tremendous psychological and economic blow dealt by the
defeat in the war, and they kept going if only to give their
hungry children enough to eat. It was this sort of determination
that brought about the postwar economic miracle.

As with everything else, however, there was an upside as well
as a downside.

Under this rigid structure of centralization of power, the
supplier-side businesses went all-out to augment and protect
their own interests, and came to depend completely on the
political and bureaucratic machinery.

A paternalistic relationship was solidly established between
the patron (politicians and bureaucrats) and client (businesses),
and lobbying became one major element of Japanese politics.

The gravest sin of this system was that led to a society where
the pursuit of economic prosperity became practically the only
goal, shaping people's values accordingly. Nobody was expected to
fall out of step with "the crowd."

People never doubted that growth could reach a limit, and
welcoming the security of remaining a cog in one big machine,
preferred the status quo to any progressive change. They were
unaccustomed to respecting each other's talents as individuals.

If the fundamental thinking that underlay Japan's postwar
politics were to be summed up simply, it is "physical" -- as
opposed to metaphysical.

It was the sort of politics that focused solely on the truism
that people need "bread" to live, and shrugged aside the other
truism that people do not live on bread alone. Politicians felt
no need to look beyond even 10 years into the future.

Japan is drifting helplessly in a limbo of its own creation,
having muddled through with its "physical" politics for so many
years.

But in the last 10 years, attempts at reform have been made at
long last. Repeated efforts have been made to do away with the
centralization of power, secrecy, lobbying and the paternalistic
protectionism and create fair political-administrative rules for
local autonomy, information disclosure and so on.

Even though such efforts have yet to show sufficient results,
the trial and error has at least convinced the public that the
nation is in urgent need of fundamental reforms.

But what would it take to get the ball really rolling?

The answer is the nation's resolve to reject the basic
mentality that has shaped postwar politics and dare to aim for a
new sphere by welcoming "discontinuity". And by the nation, I
mean voters in particular, not just politicians and bureaucrats.

Politics cannot withdraw from supplying "bread" to the public.
But it is also about time we voters questioned our own lazy
tendency to shun serious thinking. We all want the security of
being protected by some power that is much bigger than ourselves.
Yet, we must stop and do our own thinking.

During the last century, we were obsessed with year-on-year
growth. The economy and the natural environment were always
discussed in the context of conflict. But in this present century
that forces us to think of the world of 100 years later, those
issues must be discussed anew in the context of harmony.

Politics has fulfilled most of our physical needs already. We
should now consider saying goodbye to the traditional lockstep
mentality. It is time to transform Japan into a mature society
where diverse values coexist to stimulate members.

We need to have the courage and wisdom to seek a breakthrough,
a "discontinuity" from the past at the most fundamental level of
thinking in all areas.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party votes for its president
this autumn. A Lower House election is also drawing near.

Are we going to witness progress in reforms, or are we to
experience yet further delay? Elections are every voter's
business. The success or failure of reforms ultimately rests on
none other than us voters.

The writer, a former member of the Lower House and former
governor of Mie Prefecture, is currently a professor at the Okuma
School of Public Management at Waseda University and president of
the National Congress for 21st Century Japan.