The bitter rivalry between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) and the opposition Democratic Party (DPJ) is set to continue after the Ichiro Ozawa led DPJ rejected a grand coalition offer from the Japanese PM Yasuo Fakuda. The ruling LDP has lost massive support among the Japanese people ever since Tokyo sided with the United States in the unpopular Iraq war.
On the other hand the DPJ, seeing its opportunity to make a political comeback in the country after winning the elections for the upper house of the parliament, has made every effort to block any governmental decision in order to increase intense pressure on the ruling LDP.
The failure on the part of the Japanese politicians to solve the growing domestic problems is hindering the country to play a major regional leadership role. In fact, the domestic political uncertainty is acting as a counter-effect to Japan’s regional and global economic importance. Japanese political scenario is in a bad shape, to say the least. The situation has further deteriorated after various reports of severe infighting among Japan’s two biggest political parties. The infighting in the LDP is not new as over the years many LDP members have defected to the opposition camp after serious political differences and recently one of the cabinet ministers had to resign after some unwanted World War II comments on his part created outrage among the LDP and Japan as a whole.
According to some Japanese media reports, the offer of a grand coalition had in fact come from the DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, which many think would reduce his credibility in front of his colleagues and the Japanese people. Although the leader has offered his resignation, yet the DPJ is declining to accept it given his acute leadership skills and the party sees that he is the best man to make it the new ruling power if snap polls are held early next year. Now the question is, with such rivalry among the two parties, why is there a talk of a grand coalition?
Well many believe that the only way to solve the country’s growing problems is to go for a coalition, which would help in effective implementation of the important national and international policies. However, as far as another view is concerned, if the initial offer had come from the LDP side, it is trying to demolish the DPJ’s new-found political ambitions and such a coalition would enable the current government to maintain its unconditional support of the United States, which I’m sure is very unlikely given the DPJ’s aggressive attitude towards the ruling party.
Now, if the offer of a grand coalition had come from the DPJ, they must be thinking of somehow entering the government as they are hoping to do so for many years and keep the government under intense pressure to bow to its views and demands. This may be a way to gain important experience on governance and prepare for any future elections.
But, a grand coalition would definitely help the beleaguered Yasuo Fakuda government which in turn can somehow plug the threats of any early election. The LDP knows that it is certain to lose if there are early polls given the poor public opinion against them and therefore it is the ruling party that is going to gain the most from any grand coalition.
Image Link:Reuters
