Sino-Tibet ‘Fence-mending Talks’

BEIJING: In a move that brings hope to the hearts of many, after the prolonged protests of the Tibetans, China resumed talks with the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, in what is being termed as ‘fence-mending talks’. This is being widely seen as an image building exercise By China, in the wake of a large scale international protest against the treatment meted out to the Tibetans. The timing is a perfect match to subside some of the protests over the holding of Olympics in China; reportedly it will improve the image of China, desperately seeking international coverage with the soon to be held Olympics.

With China still refusing to confirm details, what is supposedly a much closed door meeting, an aide of the Dalai Lama however confirmed the news. Tenzin Taklha added that the talks started on Tuesday morning and that the envoys are expected to return on Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, reiterated that Tibet was an internal issue, when he was asked to comment on the French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement that his decision about attending the Beijing Olympics would be based on the progress of Chinese talks with Tibet.

In what seemed a clear indication of the issue, answering reporters, Liu said, “Tibet is our internal affair, and the Chinese government’s relevant department’s contacts with the Dalai Lama’s representatives are an internal affair, and we oppose any foreign leader meeting the Dalai Lama in any setting and oppose linking the Olympic Games to the Tibet issue” The current talks, was supposedly delayed by the deadly earthquake in China. Supposedly it was preceded by a goodwill motion mostly by the, Dalai Lama.

Commenting on the situation, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on a three-day visit to China, said he was looking forward to a fruitful round of talks between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese delegation.

Japan PM faces likely censure

Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda could well suffer an embarrassing if non-binding censure in parliament’s upper house next week, but for now the betting is he can keep his job at least for the rest of the year.

Japan’s main opposition Democratic Party is likely to submit the rare censure motion against Fukuda in the opposition-controlled upper house, where it would almost certainly pass, party sources said on Thursday.”At least in the view of party executives, this is definite,” Kyodo news agency quoted a top party official as saying. “After that, it’s a question of timing.”

Fukuda’s ratings have slipped below 20 percent in some polls as he has struggled to cope with a divided parliament, where the opposition has taken every opportunity to delay key legislation.

That has prompted talk that the ruling party may replace its leader after he hosts a Group of Eight summit in July.

But Fukuda has brushed off talk of a censure motion, telling reporters on Wednesday in Rome, where he attended a world food summit, that it might be a frivolous step by the opposition.

Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa has made clear he wants to force Fukuda to step down or call a snap lower house poll by fanning public dissatisfaction with the leader and frustration over the political stalemate that is stymieing government policy.

Democratic Party officials said a censure motion would take aim at Fukuda’s introduction of a confusing national health insurance scheme that has outraged many elderly — long supporters of the ruling party — by forcing some aged 75 and over to pay more. The Democrats want to abolish the new system.

“Once this system took effect in April, the overwhelming view of the people has been that it is just too cruel,” Democratic Party executive Naoto Kan told a news conference.

The insurance row came close on the heels of the ruling bloc’s revival of a hefty and unpopular petrol tax used to fund roading projects that critics decried as wasteful.

But political analysts said the fall in Fukuda’s ratings may have bottomed out, helped by his performance on the diplomatic front after hosting a conference of African leaders and traveling to Europe this week to meet his G8 counterparts.

“We will see the end of the Diet session, and Democrats beating up on him will be off the front page,” said Gerry Curtis, a political science professor at Columbia University.

“We’ll have the run-up to the summit and lots of foreign policy, where he’s strong, and reassuring to the public,” he added. “My guess is that you can’t write off Fukuda.”

Kyodo quoted a top Democratic Party official as saying party executives had signed off on the decision to submit the censure motion, but that the timing and wording had yet to be decided.

An upper house resolution would have no legal clout, but it now appears more like an opposition maneuver to remind the public of what critics consider Fukuda’s faults.

“The political meaning of a censure motion is not only a matter for each party’s interpretation, but ultimately is a question of how the public views it,” the Democrats’ Kan said, noting Fukuda has never received a mandate from voters since no nationwide election has been held since he took office last year.

“We want to stress that the time has come for a snap election by taking advantage of the censure motion,” he said.

No general election need be held until September 2009 and the ruling bloc is wary of an early poll given the risk of losing its two-thirds majority that now enables it to override upper house vetoes in most matters.

“Probably there will be no election this year, and it is hard to change prime ministers,” said Keio University professor Yasunori Sone. “Of course, if his popularity sinks again, that’s a different story.”

— Reuters

South Korea’s Beefy Problem

      

South Korea’s beef import agreement with the United States is off to a bad start. President Lee Myung-bak is now faced with overwhelming public disapproval over his government’s decision to implement the agreement, in spite of earlier opposition from the masses.Three South Korean opposition parties asked the Constitutional Court on Friday to block U.S. beef from entering the country after the government announced Thursday it would soon restart quarantine inspections, clearing the way for imports to resume.

Over the past five years, South Korea has banned American beef from entering their land, due to mad cow disease alarms in the past. The South Korean government, however, had agreed to resume U.S. beef imports in April.

Meanwhile, 5,000 protesters gathered in central Seoul for what have become nightly rallies, calling for the government to cancel the import accord and for President Lee- approaching his 100th day in office - to step down.

The opposition parties said they asked the Constitutional Court to rule that the government’s policy on U.S. beef violates the people’s right to health. They also called on the court to issue an injunction against resuming imports until a verdict has been issued.

The court was deliberating the case, spokesman Judge Kim Bok-ki said.

Separately the parties demanded that all members of Lee’s Cabinet resign.

The conservative, unabashedly pro-American Lee took office on Feb. 25 after winning December’s presidential election in a landslide, vowing to use his business acumen - honed while he was CEO of Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. - to boost the economy.

Despite this, his popularity took a nosedive upon his handling of the April 18 agreement with the U.S. to resume beef imports. The timing of the deal - just hours before a summit with U.S. President George W. Bush at his Camp David retreat - struck a particularly raw nerve.

Protesters claim Lee was too quick to concede to U.S. demands for access to South Korea’s market to win favor with Washington and garner support in Congress for a bilateral free trade agreement.

South Korea suspended beef imports after the first U.S. case of the brain-wasting cattle disease appeared in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state. Two subsequent cases were also discovered in the U.S.

Before the ban, South Korea was the third-largest overseas market for U.S. beef.

A previous deal allowed restricted imports last year, but that was suspended after banned substances were found in shipments.

Search is on for the next Singapore PM

Political writer and ex-opposition leader finds it hard to believe none of the 3.6m Singaporeans is qualified to replace or succeed Mr. Lee Hsien Loong.

By Dr. Wong Wee Nam
The Malaysian General Elections has since ended and Abdullah Badawi has continued as the Prime Minister. But he is now having problems keeping the job.

This is because there are many who want to take over. Even Anwar Ibrahim, who is not even an elected Member of Parliament, is eyeing the job.

Just as there are many who had vied for the posts of Menteri Besar in the State governments, there is no lack of candidates for the post of the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

In the United Kingdom, when a schoolboy visits 10 Downing Street, he invariably likes to pose in front of the official residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain for a picture.

In other words, it is a schoolboy’s dream to become the Prime Minister of Britain. It is not that the job of the Prime Minister in Great Britain pays very well. It does not.

Compare to footballers like Christiano Ronaldo or David Beckham, the Prime Minister’s job is a lowly-paid one. Even by Singapore’s standards, it is an extremely lowly-paid job.

The pay is only a fraction of the salary of a similar position in Singapore.

Yet Great Britain, like Malaysia, does not lack candidates for the position of Prime Minister. In fact, there is even no lack of candidates for the position of a shadow Prime Minister on the opposition bench.

No country in the world has difficulty finding people willing to become Prime Minister or running for Presidency.

No country except Singapore, that is. The Straits Times of 2nd April 2008 reads: “PM still looking for his successor”.

Uniquely Singapore

We must be in a very unique situation in the world. With a job that is the highest paid in the world, it is a wonder we are still looking for a successor.

This must be the only country in the world where people are very reluctant to be office-holders. Something must be very, very wrong - either with the country or with the quality of our people.

Has our gene pool become so depleted that we do not now have capable people to run the country? This cannot be so.

Every year there are hundreds of students who graduate from our colleges with straight A’s and S-papers.

Competition for scholarships and places in the universities is very keen. In world competitions, our students still come up top in Mathematics and Science.

Our students regularly win the Angus Ross Prize for Literature and the Jessup Cup for mooting. So the quality of our gene pool is still very good.

Reason for the problem

So what is the problem? Why is it so difficult to find someone to become a Prime Minister in Singapore?

It is not because Singapore is not ripe for revolution or that our people are so well-taken care off that we like to leave governing to others that we are faced with this problem.

If revolution and economic dissatisfaction are the reasons for people wanting to become Prime Minister, then all the well-to-do stable democracies in the world would have difficulty looking for leaders.

The reason for the problem is in our culture. In Singapore nobody is taught from young to covet the job. The political climate here does not allow anyone to covet the job.

Politics is not a profession that parents encourage their children to pursue.

It can .. be concluded that with the exorbitant salaries paid to our office-holders, we will one day be bound to attract mainly extrinsically-motivated people to public office.

When that time comes, it would indeed be a sad day for Singapore. A politician who is not intrinsically motivated will serve himself first and cannot provide the servant leadership to serve the people.

When that day comes, it would be even more difficult to find a really good person to fill the post of Prime Minister. A politician led by reward to work cannot be better than one motivated by altruism to serve.

(Dr. Wee was once office holder and election candidate for the opposition National Solidarity Party).