Mr. F. Sionil Jose from the Philippines interviewed on Japan

     Sionil Jose, a National Artist of the Philippines, a Magsaysay awardee, is 90 years old.  He was born in 1924.  His interview was published on 27 February on the daily Asahi newspaper in Japanese.  The occasion was the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Manila about this time in 1945.

     He fought the Japanese troops in Luzon in the last months of the War.  The Battle of Manila was fought during that time.  Manila, by the way, was one of the most destructed cities during the Second World War together with Stalingrad and Warsaw, by the land battle.  Sionil was determined at that time to come to Japan and kill as many Japanese as possible by his gun.

     His first visit to Japan was in 1955.  Since then he visited it almost every year.  As he sees it, Japan is safe and comfortable, with a lot of things to see.  Some of his books were written there.  He forgot some stuff in the Metro from time to time, but they were all returned to him.

     He seems to be telling the young generation of his country to learn from the Meiji Restoration in the second half of 19th Century Japan.  He says that it was a great event opening up a closed country.  Then the victory in the Russo-Japanese War at the beginning of 20th Century was not only Japan's but also of the whole of Asia in that it showed that an Asian country isolated for centuries under feudalism was able to modernize itself.  Even the Second World War showed what a small country with a dedicated people could do.

     This writer, however, would not agree.  Japan modernized itself under the motto of the Rich Country, Strong Military.  Many Asian leaders, including Sun Yat-sen of China, looked up to Japan in those days, but they got ultimately disillusioned.  If there was some one who was not interested in this way of modernization, it was Gandhi of India.

     But when Sionil Jose says that in Japan today there is not much of open debate on the questions facing her, the media is hesitant in criticizing the ruling elites, and it is possible that the country is led to some ultra-nationalistic goal, I heartily agree with him.  A person like him is a real friend of us.  Let me conclude by saying that I look forward to meeting him sooner rather than later.    

     

     

Prime Minister Abe Speaks

      Mr. Abe spoke on the main features of his policies in the both Houses of the Japanese Parliament (known as the Diet) on 12 February.  Here are some of these policies, together with my critical comments wherever relevant.

     At the very beginning, he said before going into the details that Japan will perform her responsibility in the international community in fighting terrorism.  He thus put Japan on the side of the willing, effectively though not formally.  He did not elaborate what was terrorism, whom he wanted to fight, and how it came into being in a large measure in the present world.  Terrorism is a word very vague and dangerous to use in the international context.  I have raised five questions on Abe's behaviour, including his language, in connection with the Japanese hostages who were murdered by the ISIL.

     Then, Abe made it clear that he wants to see the TPP negotiations to come to an early conclusion, to lower the corporation tax by 2.5 %, to reopen the nuclear plants which are considered safe, to let the company profit to be related to the rise in wages, and to raise the consumption tax from the present 8 % to ten from April 2017.

     It is clear from them that he is firmly standing on the trickling-down theory which is now labelled out of date, even by the OECD, the alliance of the rich countries, in its recent report. The lower corporation tax and the successive hike in the consumption tax, heavier on the poor people, will assure the income tax in general to be on the high level.  The average monthly wage has come down from its highest in 1997 by as much as \ 55, 000 by now, showing the bankruptcy of the trickling-down theory.  On the reopening of the nuclear plants, Abe is apparently taking the side of the nuclear business industry, as the Fukushima plant is still not able to deal with its contaminated water.

     On the diplomacy and security, Abe sticks to the Japan-US alliance, and says that he will go ahead with the construction of the new US air base at Henoko, Okinawa, in spite of the overwhelming opposition of the residents of Okinawa Prefecture, as represented in several elections toward the end of 2014.

     In the last minute or two of his speech Abe referred to the issue of the Constitutional amendment, without getting into any details.  It did not look nice.  Worse still, he did not say a word on the talk he is supposed to give around 15 August this year in commemoration of the 70 years of the end of the War.                

Delhi Assembly Elections

     Elections to the Delhi Legislative Assembly were held on 7 February, and the result came to be known on 10.  It was a huge surprise.  The Aam Admi Party(AAP) got 67 out of seventy, while the BJP, in spite of its control on the national government with the charismatic Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, got only three.  The Congress got none, yes, none at all.  Is such a result going to be an exception in the Indian politics, or does it show the shape of things to come?  I do not think anybody will dare to answer right now.

     The Congress obtained only 9 % of the votes polled.  This shows that there is tremendous disappointment among the people with the Congress, or rather with the dynasty that rules it. Rajdeep Sardesai's book, 2014, makes it clear how the mother and the son failed to present any constructive initiative before the electorate at the Lok Sabha elections in May 2014. It will be beyond comprehension if they both do not retire now from the Presidentship and the Vice-Presentship of the Party.  The Party itself had better, at least for the time being, dissolve itself into something of Mahatma Gandhi's Lok Sevak Sangh, of which we have again been reminded just a couple of weeks ago, on 30 January.

     In terms of the votes, the BJP, with its 32 %, has not done so badly.  In the Lok Sabha it polled 31 %,  and got the landslide victory.  Still their defeat is a surprise when the party has got all the seven Parliamentary seats from Delhi.  The only possible explanation is that their policies have not been sufficiently pro-poor.  Also, against the AAP, who represents the anti-corruption mood in the country, the BJP has not been seen as an anti-corruption party.

     Now the AAP, which has got an scary 54 %.  I have seen Mr. Kejriwal on the TV who was by the side of the fasting Anna Hazare in Delhi in August 2011.  Is he able to retain the control on the government this time and go ahead with the anti-corruption programme?  Is he able to build his party in other States also to be the viable force to oppose the BJP with a more pro-poor policy, and to take the place of the Congress?  Everything is uncertain.  But the Indian politics has become suddenly very volatile.