May 4, 2011
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2011 April 27 - May 10 TOP3 [POLITICS]
Denounce move to use quake as excuse to revise Constitution |
I must condemn an attempt in the Diet to use the latest disaster as an opportunity to pave the way for a revision of the Constitution.
The Parliamentarian League for a New Constitution, involving members of the Liberal Democratic, Democratic, and Komei parties, held a rally on April 28. They spoke of the urgent need to revise the Constitution, insisting that the disaster has revealed the constitutional failure to handle a state of emergency.
However, is the Constitution to be blamed for the government’s failure to properly respond to the current emergency? Is the Constitution responsible for the nuclear accident in Fukushima? No way. The responsibility lies with the government and its promotion of the construction of many nuclear power plants throughout the country over decades without taking necessary safety measures.
Core members of the League include former prime ministers Nakasone Yasuhiro, Kaifu Toshiki, Abe Shinzo, and Hatoyama Yukio, all of whom promoted the massive construction plan. Without recognizing their own responsibility, they unjustly blame the Constitution for the nuclear accident and call for its revision. Let us block this cowardly attempt to take advantage of the ongoing confusion to revise Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution.
The right to refuse risks and fears of nuclear power plants is based on the Constitution. Its preamble proclaims:
“We recognize that all peoples of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want.”
This does not refer only to the absence of war. It declares the people’s right to live without any “fear” or “want”. I hope that the struggle to make full use of this beautiful principle of the Constitution will strengthen.
Let us join together to have the Japanese Constitution fully implemented to achieve a genuine reconstruction from the disaster.
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