Dissolving the Diet for general election is the only answer -- Akahata editorial, June 10 (excerpts)

The Japanese Communist Party Central Committee 4th Plenum demanded that the House of Representatives be immediately resolved for a general election, saying that Koizumi politics has failed on all fronts and that the government has a serious responsibility for hiding its true colors under the deceptive call for "reform."

Prevalent distrust

The support rates for the Koizumi Cabinet which were as high as 80-90 percent, have dropped to around 40 percent, non-support rates being higher than support rates.

In the latest opinion surveys, 65 percent of respondents say they "don't trust" in the present government (Tokyo Shimbun), and 86 percent say they are "dissatisfied" with the government(Yomiuri Shimbun). The people's confidence in the Koizumi Cabinet is now almost gone.

The current Diet session is crammed with undemocratic bills proposed by the government. The more discussion on these bills is made, the more defective and sinister they are found to be.

The danger of the contingency bills allowing the Japanese government to use force abroad and force the people to cooperate in wars has alarmed heads of local municipalities. A Nikkei Shimbun survey, in which the opinion "against" stood at 46 percent was more than the "for" opinion at 40 percent.

A majority opinion in surveys is a call for dissolving the House of Representatives for a general election. Public opinion demands that their judgment be sought in a general election.

During the past year, people rapidly turned from placing high hopes on the prime minister to disappointment and discontent because they have come to see through that the prime minister's call for "reform" (even at the cost of destroying the Liberal Democratic Party) was a deception and that his government is in fact no different from corruption-tainted old politicking.

Failure of Koizumi politics is obvious in all fronts: The LDP lacks self-cleansing ability when scandals of money for favor surface one after another; foreign policy lacks independence and principle, just following U.S. instructions; and economic policy is like a rudderless ship.

The JCP has played a major part in revealing Koizumi politics in its true colors before the people and in making a positive breakthrough by cornering the government.

When the mass media were extolling Koizumi's "structural reform" policy, only the JCP clearly criticized it for inflicting unbearable pain on the people's livelihood and for collapsing the national economy.

Debates by the JCP in parliament concerning suspicions of Dietman Suzuki Muneo over his money-for-favor scandals caused major repercussions inside and outside the Diet.

Parliament and general public

The JCP also helped to organize nationwide grassroots struggles to foil the contingency bills and the bills for adverse revision of the health insurance system, and in opposition to corporate restructuring.

The task now is to link these struggles in and out of the Diet to block the runaway misgovernment of the Koizumi Cabinet and get the House of Representatives dissolved for a general election. (end)