Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Disgraceful political opportunism

Perhaps this is just my political naivety showing, but I really can't imagine how ousting (Japanese Prime Minister Naoto) Kan with a non-confidence vote and initiating an election would be of any benefit to the disaster recovery and nuclear crisis handling efforts.

If, as many pundits seem to believe, the vote of non-confidence isn't actually meant to succeed but is merely an act to weaken/divide the party, then I think it's truly a disgraceful display of political opportunism.

At a time such as this--with the nuclear crisis still ongoing and a long road ahead for recovery from the earthquake/tsunami--all Japanese politicians should be focused on creating and passing policies that will aid the recovery efforts rather than wasting time, resources and taxpayers' money on political bickering and power mongering.

I am particularly disgusted with Ozawa and his supporters in the DPJ. It's understandable that other parties would want to take advantage of a chance to take down the DPJ, but I think it's self-defeating to weaken/destroy your own party just so that you can take power. Even if you succeed in taking over, you end up with a weakened party and a bad public image. (I see some parallels here with the current state of the Liberals thanks in part to the Chretien/Martin debacle.)

Some online articles:
Bloomberg: "Kan No-Confidence Vote May See DPJ Split"
Japan Times: "Kan foes in DPJ set to join ouster ploy" "Kan's foes readying no-confidence vote"

[Update 1: Japan Times Online "No-confidence vote set for Kan cabinet"
Update 2: Japan Times Online "Kan survives no-confidence motion yet offers to quit after 'certain degree' of postquake recovery"]