EDITORIAL: Budget panel debate

The Lower House Budget Committee started debate last Friday on the government's draft budget for fiscal 2010. The committee is tasked with scrutinizing the first spending plan crafted by the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. This is an important arena that deserves serious attention.

Did we hear the kind of debate we had expected in this supposed new era of politics on the first day of the committee session? Unfortunately, the answer is no. We have to say we were bitterly disappointed.

The session was held the day after prosecutors indicted three current and former aides to Democratic Party of Japan Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa in a political fund scandal concerning a questionable land purchase by Ozawa's political fund management organization. One of the former aides is now a Lower House member. Even though prosecutors dropped the case against Ozawa, the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party naturally focused its questions on the issue of "politics and money."

But Hatoyama's answers to these questions showed little sense of crisis over the dire situation his government faces.

Referring to the decision by prosecutors not to indict Ozawa, Hatoyama said: "You (the questioner) have made it sound as though (Ozawa) were still under a cloud of suspicion. But the prosecutors' investigation has not recognized (the allegations) as facts." He added, "I don't see any need to ask Secretary-General Ozawa to testify before the Deliberative Council on Political Ethics."

Hatoyama's remarks indicate he won't call on Ozawa to answer questions about the scandal before the Diet nor initiate a party inquiry into the allegations. It is hard to believe these words were uttered by the head of the DPJ. This is the same party that waged a relentless campaign over many years against political corruption and the money-driven nature of past LDP-led governments.

Hatoyama also spoke about his party's ascent to power at the committee session. "Get out of the shell of old politics. Let's start new politics. That's the message of expectations we received from the people as they voted for a change of government," he said. But his words sounded hollow.

It is true that voters sought a new style of politics. But the Hatoyama administration is now engaged in the same old style of politics that voters had rejected. That's at least the feeling among voters who are increasingly disillusioned with the new government.

The scandal over Ozawa's political funds is not the only reason.

At Friday's Budget Committee session, the opposition camp also devoted considerable time to a decision by the DPJ to use its prefectural chapters to channel information about planned budget allocations on individual road and other public works projects to local governments.

For local governments, the amount of money to be appropriated for their public works projects is of great interest. Those projects are under the jurisdiction of the infrastructure ministry. The DPJ lawmakers serving in the ministry's top three posts should have conveyed the information to local governments first. Instead, it was the party that did so.

The LDP criticized the move as "undisguised politics of patronage." It called the move an effort to help the DPJ win the Upper House election this summer by obtaining the support of interested parties through the allocation of taxpayer money.

Ozawa made sure that all petitions from local governments and organizations were lodged with his party office. He apparently tried to solidify this centralized system for dealing with petitions so the party could tell local governments how their budget requests had been incorporated into the actual spending plan.

It is hard for Ozawa to deny that the move was aimed at winning the support from local governments and industry organizations in exchange for budget outlays. Is this the "politicians' leadership" in policymaking the DPJ promised? We feel a strong sense of disillusionment.

The DPJ's political behavior reeks of the old style of politics that was established by the LDP faction led by the late Kakuei Tanaka when he was prime minister. Under this political tradition, the political power of a group simply derives from the number of seats it controls and the priority is on winning elections. Budgets are blatantly abused for election victories.

We hear no voice criticizing Ozawa's approach among DPJ members. Where has the new politics gone? The DPJ is presenting a truly sad picture.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 6