January 30, 2011
The Democratic Party of Japan and the other ruling partners on January 28 unilaterally opened a meeting of the House of Representatives Budget Committee and forced through the presentation of the FY 2011 budget draft. The attendees only included lawmakers from the DPJ, the People’s New Party, and the Social Democratic Party.
Akahata on January 30 ran an interview with Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji (House of Representatives) on the ongoing turmoil. The excerpts follow:
It has been the custom for directors of the Diet Steering Committee (in which both ruling and opposition parties take part) to consensually decide on Diet procedures. However, the directors were not called to meet in advance.
What is more, Nakai Hiroshi (DPJ) used his authority as the chairman of the Lower House Budget Committee to one-sidedly proclaim a schedule of the dates and times for question-and-answer sessions with the attendance of Prime Minister Kan Naoto and all other cabinet ministers.
Diet Steering Committee directors from four opposition parties (JCP, LDP, Komei, Your Party) had been proposing that the presentation of the FY 2011 budget draft be held on January 31 and that question-and-answer sessions on the draft begin on February 1. We had made this proposal because we took PM Kan’s schedule into consideration as he was returning to Japan from the Davos Forum on the night of January 30. We also thought of giving time to the DPJ to discuss its response to its senior member Ozawa Ichiro’s testimony in the Lower House Budget Committee as called for by the opposition parties.
However, the ruling DPJ and People’s New Party totally ignored our proposal. Parliamentary procedures should be based on agreements among parties. If the majority party alone decides on these procedures, it tramples on the principle of parliamentary democracy.
The DPJ are arguing as if we, the opposition parties, are refusing to attend the Lower House Budget Committee over the issue of Ozawa’s testimony. This is not true. The opposition parties are calling for deliberations on the budget draft in parallel with consultations on Ozawa’s testimony. It is the DPJ that is refusing such discussions.
The DPJ should immediately stop acting so arrogantly in proceedings of the Lower House Budget Committee and should clarify to the general public its stance regarding Ozawa’s testimony.
Akahata on January 30 ran an interview with Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji (House of Representatives) on the ongoing turmoil. The excerpts follow:
It has been the custom for directors of the Diet Steering Committee (in which both ruling and opposition parties take part) to consensually decide on Diet procedures. However, the directors were not called to meet in advance.
What is more, Nakai Hiroshi (DPJ) used his authority as the chairman of the Lower House Budget Committee to one-sidedly proclaim a schedule of the dates and times for question-and-answer sessions with the attendance of Prime Minister Kan Naoto and all other cabinet ministers.
Diet Steering Committee directors from four opposition parties (JCP, LDP, Komei, Your Party) had been proposing that the presentation of the FY 2011 budget draft be held on January 31 and that question-and-answer sessions on the draft begin on February 1. We had made this proposal because we took PM Kan’s schedule into consideration as he was returning to Japan from the Davos Forum on the night of January 30. We also thought of giving time to the DPJ to discuss its response to its senior member Ozawa Ichiro’s testimony in the Lower House Budget Committee as called for by the opposition parties.
However, the ruling DPJ and People’s New Party totally ignored our proposal. Parliamentary procedures should be based on agreements among parties. If the majority party alone decides on these procedures, it tramples on the principle of parliamentary democracy.
The DPJ are arguing as if we, the opposition parties, are refusing to attend the Lower House Budget Committee over the issue of Ozawa’s testimony. This is not true. The opposition parties are calling for deliberations on the budget draft in parallel with consultations on Ozawa’s testimony. It is the DPJ that is refusing such discussions.
The DPJ should immediately stop acting so arrogantly in proceedings of the Lower House Budget Committee and should clarify to the general public its stance regarding Ozawa’s testimony.
