On character building

On the morning of May 14, I tuned in to NHK Japan, when fortunately the regular Sunday Debate (Japanese: Nichiyoo Tooron- kai) program featured a talk show with the appearance of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, discussing a topic entitled Questioning the Prime Minister. The program is in Japanese.

Returning home from his trip of meeting with President Girac of France, Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK, President Putin of Russia and President Bill Clinton, it only stands to reason for the talk show to center around questions and answers on topics of world economics and political problems.

But amid the outstanding matters of discussion, burning social issues on the domestic scene also came to the fore, including the acute aggravation of juvenile delinquency, involving incidents of murder among youngsters.

Taking up the critical problem of the decline of morals among the high school students, the prime minister was questioned about his stance on the issue of educational reform (Japanese: kyooiku kaikaku).

The remarkable features unveiled on the talk show, as far as Prime Minister Mori's personality is concerned, were, among other things, his very relaxed and good-natured composure, unpretentious disposition and his very articulate eloquence in clarifying his determined stance on the problems under discussion.

The viewer is reminded of the self-possessed posture of a Samurai so common in Japanese movies.

In one instance, the prime minister sounded somewhat "un- Japanese" as he expressed his opinion that it may be true that a child's life, as a victim of crime, derives from the existence of the parents, but at the very origin the child's life is the spout of the power of God. At this point, the moderator shared the prime minister's view that the child's life deserves respect and care from the society.

Citing an aspect of his early school life, recalling it as a story dating back 60 years, Prime Minister Mori related his unforgettable experience of encountering an exemplary confidence- inspiring attitude of his teacher in the fourth grade.

S. SUHAEDI

Jakarta