Current location:International Idiom news portal > politics
VOX POPULI: Abe faction’s ‘amended’ funds report is simply worthless
International Idiom news portal2024-05-21 14:33:27【politics】6People have gathered around
IntroductionFor the first time in ages, The Asahi Shimbun on Feb. 1 printed a table of data that ran almost the
For the first time in ages, The Asahi Shimbun on Feb. 1 printed a table of data that ran almost the full length of a page, from top to bottom.
It was a breakdown of an amended version of a political funds income and expenditure report of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Abe faction.
As a general rule, I do not believe in publicizing the trouble someone went through to make a point. But this is a special case, and I want everyone to know how hard my colleagues worked together to compile that table. They had to race against the clock to meet the deadline while poring through pages of documents to enumerate the data.
This had to be done because, in the first place, the “disclosure” made by the Abe faction was only one page long.
All it said was that the faction had failed to report a total of about 670 million yen over the last five years. There was no mention whatsoever of when, or how much, or who among the lawmakers were asked to funnel their fundraiser party revenues into the slush fund.
The words on that sheet of paper--“We apologize from the bottom of our hearts”--could not be more insincere.
Among the names listed on the table compiled by my colleagues based on the revised political funding reports submitted to the government, I noticed that of an Abe faction member who once criticized the “sloppy accounting” by researchers spending the government’s scientific research funding. I also saw the name of someone who has repeatedly preached “morality.”
And yet, the Abe faction has never really explained how it spends money, and senior faction members continue to refuse to talk to the public.
For the stated purpose of clarifying the situation, the LDP on Feb. 2 started interviewing the lawmakers concerned. Yet, the party reportedly keeps objecting every time an opposition party says “slush fund” in the Diet.
But the objection has no leg to stand on. The LDP has not disclosed the flow of political funds in 2018 and 2019, which effectively points to the existence of a slush fund.
Every political funds income and expenditure report is required to be accompanied by an affidavit that says to the effect that everything on the report is true and correct. But in the amended report, the affidavit was crossed out with an X mark.
Should the Abe faction attempt to weasel its way out, the public may well give the LDP a decisively bad rating.
After all, the pen is in the hands of the people.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 3
* *
*Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Address of this article:http://uganda.majalahburung.com/content-280a399716.html
Very good!(749)
Related articles
- College baseball notebook: Conference tournaments to decide NCAA automatic bids and many at
- Peter Andre reveals TWO names are 'in the running' for his newborn daughter as legal deadline looms
- China calls for strengthened flood control in Yangtze, Taihu Lake basins
- Connor Wong homers twice, Rafael Devers connects for solo shot as Red Sox hammer Guardians 8
- Who is Jacob Zuma, the former South African president disqualified from next week's election?
- Steve Carell and Tina Fey reunite for Netflix's eight
- Playoff hopes fading for troubled Crusaders in Super Rugby Pacific
- Celtics were beaten at their own game at 3
- Biden says Brown v. Board of Education ruling was about more than education
- Princess Charlotte's adorable talent that makes her mother Kate Middleton 'very happy'
Popular articles
Recommended
Kristin Cavallari, 37, ignores critics of her age
Chinese lighthouse factories light up journey to new industrialization
Dutch TV series about Queen Maxima of the Netherlands has been sold to Spain's Atresmedia TV
Burkina Faso's army massacred over 200 civilians in a village raid, Human Rights Watch says
Britain's new bonkers EV: Callum Skye is an £80k electric buggy built in Warwickshire
Defending champion Golden Knights beat Stars 3
Blinken, in Shanghai, begins expected contentious talks with Chinese officials
New Godzilla x Kong film continues to lead Chinese box office
Links
- How the OJ Simpson saga became a unique American moment
- Where is the Princess of Wales? The internet knows
- Pakistani police search for gunmen who abducted bus passengers and killed 10 in the southwest
- Judge orders ex
- OJ Simpson dies at 76 of prostate cancer
- Far fewer young Americans now want to study in China, something both countries are trying to fix
- Judge orders ex
- Suburban Detroit police fatally shoot man who pointed gun at them
- Three killed in Ethiopia shootout as regional rebellions spill into the capital
- Germany: Parliament’s lower house to vote on gender self