Figures of Covid-19 infection cases and deaths surge, recording the highest day by day, thus the whole medical system is sinking in crisis. Infected people under medical observation at home more frequently lose their lives. Restaurants and bars get bankrupted and workers are left unemployed, thrown to the streets. The Diet’s ordinary session has begun and Premier Suga made his policy speech, which astonished us with disappointment as well as his replies to lawmakers’ questions. The administration shows signs of a downfall just at its beginning.
PREMIER’S POLICY SPEECH LET US DOWM WITH FRUSTRATION
The pandemic has been sharply spreading since last November. The opposition parties had long demanded to extend the extraordinary session of the Diet, meanwhile Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and his cohort MPs enjoyed banquets, neglecting the bid. Opposition lawmakers had presented bills to revise the Special Law on Pandemic and the Infectious Diseases Act, but they have been shelved up. This negligence itself constitutes government’s abandonment of its responsibility. Furthermore, however, Premier’s speech in the parliament left us disappointed as he showed inactiveness and heartlessness.
Lives are selected amid contagious disease
Premier spent only seven minutes on talking about measures to cope with the pandemic during his 45-minute speech. He did not refer to the consequences of the so-called Go-to-Campaign, a government-subsidized travel back-up policy, and attributed the increasing infection to ‘behaviors of young people who go out to enjoy drinking and eating’. He spent the biggest part of the rest 38 minutes on mentioning economic growth after the misfortune is over. He described realization of Green Economy on the basis of nuclear power generation, digitalization reforms and a tourism-oriented national economy plan, concluding his speech with hosting the Olympic Games and Paralympics.
Premier Suga clung to the administration-led testing practice, deliberately evading the basic steps to conduct massive tests and protect patients. He would not alter his direction, though today’s medical crisis is an outcome of the policy to depend on personal efforts. The government leader should have bravely changed the course.
The leader maybe thinks over selection of lives of the elderly whom it costs a lot to provide medical services and of small-and-medium-sized businesses whose productivity is low, taking advantage of the current disaster. He is eager to lend a hand to big businesses to develop in the society that will emerge after the virus is gone. Is he determined to do anything evil, keeping his possible forced resignation in mind?
Penalty clause invites harsh criticisms
The current Diet session deals with the third-round of Fiscal 2020 supplementary budget plan, the Fiscal 2021 budget draft and the bills to revise the Special Law on Pandemic and the Infectious Diseases Act. Opposition lawmakers expressed clear and fervent criticisms on the premier’s speech and on the bills. With regard to a penalty payment proposed in the special act, it will not work: the government would be authorized to control private rights of business owners in general, not limiting to restaurants and bars, under the circumstances where subsidies and compensations are insufficient. At the same time it needs an enormous amount of administrative jobs to make inquiries in each of businesses.
Concerning penalty in the act on infectious diseases, a great number of statements against punishment have been presented by many organizations, including the Japanese Medical Science Federation. Mr. Edano Yukio, Head of the Constitutional Democratic Party, definitely and precisely rejected the clause.
The current session approved extending the Go-to-Travel program until the end of June, allocating a budget of 1.3 trillion Yen, meanwhile the opposition parties demand to cancel it; they demand to spend the money in PCR tests and healthcare and in another benefit payments to businesses to survive and people to pay their rents.
President Shii Kazuo of the Japanese Communist Party urged to withdraw from holding the Olympics and Paralympics, but Premier Suga inertly repeated that successful hosting of the games would prove conquest over the pandemic.
The new government of the United States led by Biden has announced an additional allowance to every citizen amounting about 150 thousand Yen per person. The Japanese premier has lost aptitude to think creatively, while people have missed faith in him.
作年１１月から感染が急増、野党は臨時国会の延長を求めたが、菅義偉首相や与党議員は宴会に耽っていた。野党提出の特措法と感染症法の改定案は、棚ざらし。これだけでも、菅内閣の責任は重大だ。しかも、首相の施政方針演説は無気力と冷酷が重なった異様なものだ。
コロナ禍で淘汰！
感染対策は、４５分の演説中わずか７分。ＧｏＴｏキャンペーンの反省はなく、感染拡大を「若者の外出や飲食」のせいにした。残りの３８分で一番長いのは「ポスト・コロナ時代の経済成長」。原発推進を前提とする「グリーン社会の実現」「デジタル改革」。「観光立国」めざし「オリ・パラ開催」でしめくくった。
今や世界の常識である「大量検査と感染者保護」の基本を意図的に避け、行政検査に固執。個人の努力に頼った結果が医療崩壊をもたらした以上、抜本的に方針転換すべきなのに、全く変わらない。
医療費のかかる高齢者と生産性の低い中小企業はコロナ禍によって淘汰し、「ポスト・コロナ」社会で大資本の経済成長をめざす意思が透けている。退陣に追い込まれるなら、悪いことは全部やっておこうというのか。
反対相次ぐ刑事罰
今国会には、２０年度の第三次補正予算案と２1年度予算案、特措法・感染症法改定案が提出されている。代表質問では、施政方針演説とともにこれらに野党の批判が集中した。特措法の過料は、飲食店に限らず事業者全般に私権制限を可能にするもので、かつ貧弱な補償と膨大な事業者への精査の手間など実効性もない。
感染症法の刑事罰には、日本医学会連合をはじめ反対声明が相次いでいる。立憲民主党の枝野幸男代表が、反対を表明したのは当然だ。
第三次補正にＧ ｏＴ ｏの６月末までの延長と1.３兆円を計上。野党は、Ｇ ｏＴｏ関連予算を削除して、ＰＣＲ検査や医療支援、持続化給付金と家賃支援給付金再支給などに回せと求めている。
共産党の志位和夫委員長は、「オリ・パラ中止」を迫ったが、菅首相は、「感染症に勝った証として成功させる」と繰り返すだけのお粗末さ。
バイデン米新政権は、１人１５万円相当の全国民追加給付を打ち出した。首相は思考能力を失い、国民は言葉を失った。
英訳版↓
No. 1196 Premier’s Disappointing Policy Speech
Figures of Covid-19 infection cases and deaths surge, recording the highest day by day, thus the whole medical system is sinking in crisis. Infected people under medical observation at home more frequently lose their lives. Restaurants and bars get bankrupted and workers are left unemployed, thrown to the streets. The Diet’s ordinary session has begun and Premier Suga made his policy speech, which astonished us with disappointment as well as his replies to lawmakers’ questions. The administration shows signs of a downfall just at its beginning.
PREMIER’S POLICY SPEECH LET US DOWM WITH FRUSTRATION
The pandemic has been sharply spreading since last November. The opposition parties had long demanded to extend the extraordinary session of the Diet, meanwhile Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and his cohort MPs enjoyed banquets, neglecting the bid. Opposition lawmakers had presented bills to revise the Special Law on Pandemic and the Infectious Diseases Act, but they have been shelved up. This negligence itself constitutes government’s abandonment of its responsibility. Furthermore, however, Premier’s speech in the parliament left us disappointed as he showed inactiveness and heartlessness.
Lives are selected amid contagious disease
Premier spent only seven minutes on talking about measures to cope with the pandemic during his 45-minute speech. He did not refer to the consequences of the so-called Go-to-Campaign, a government-subsidized travel back-up policy, and attributed the increasing infection to ‘behaviors of young people who go out to enjoy drinking and eating’. He spent the biggest part of the rest 38 minutes on mentioning economic growth after the misfortune is over. He described realization of Green Economy on the basis of nuclear power generation, digitalization reforms and a tourism-oriented national economy plan, concluding his speech with hosting the Olympic Games and Paralympics.
Premier Suga clung to the administration-led testing practice, deliberately evading the basic steps to conduct massive tests and protect patients. He would not alter his direction, though today’s medical crisis is an outcome of the policy to depend on personal efforts. The government leader should have bravely changed the course.
The leader maybe thinks over selection of lives of the elderly whom it costs a lot to provide medical services and of small-and-medium-sized businesses whose productivity is low, taking advantage of the current disaster. He is eager to lend a hand to big businesses to develop in the society that will emerge after the virus is gone. Is he determined to do anything evil, keeping his possible forced resignation in mind?
Penalty clause invites harsh criticisms
The current Diet session deals with the third-round of Fiscal 2020 supplementary budget plan, the Fiscal 2021 budget draft and the bills to revise the Special Law on Pandemic and the Infectious Diseases Act. Opposition lawmakers expressed clear and fervent criticisms on the premier’s speech and on the bills. With regard to a penalty payment proposed in the special act, it will not work: the government would be authorized to control private rights of business owners in general, not limiting to restaurants and bars, under the circumstances where subsidies and compensations are insufficient. At the same time it needs an enormous amount of administrative jobs to make inquiries in each of businesses.
Concerning penalty in the act on infectious diseases, a great number of statements against punishment have been presented by many organizations, including the Japanese Medical Science Federation. Mr. Edano Yukio, Head of the Constitutional Democratic Party, definitely and precisely rejected the clause.
The current session approved extending the Go-to-Travel program until the end of June, allocating a budget of 1.3 trillion Yen, meanwhile the opposition parties demand to cancel it; they demand to spend the money in PCR tests and healthcare and in another benefit payments to businesses to survive and people to pay their rents.
President Shii Kazuo of the Japanese Communist Party urged to withdraw from holding the Olympics and Paralympics, but Premier Suga inertly repeated that successful hosting of the games would prove conquest over the pandemic.
The new government of the United States led by Biden has announced an additional allowance to every citizen amounting about 150 thousand Yen per person. The Japanese premier has lost aptitude to think creatively, while people have missed faith in him.
February 2, 2021