The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Analysis: Japan's Abe looks to prove this time, he has the right stuff
- Fighting breaks out in Sudan's Blue Nile border state
- Cuban dissident blogger met by small protests in Brazil
| Analysis: Japan's Abe looks to prove this time, he has the right stuff Posted: 18 Feb 2013 07:38 PM PST TOKYO (Reuters) - Five years after staring into a political and personal abyss, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is out to prove that the man who threw in the towel after barely a year in office has what it takes to survive as a long-term leader.
Abe, whose 2006-2007 term as premier ended with his abrupt resignation after a year plagued by scandals, an election defeat and a gastro-intestinal ailment worsened by stress, won a rare second chance when his party surged back to power in December. This time, in an effort to show he's taking care of his health, Abe has resumed jogging and is sipping room-temperature water during parliament sessions, apparently to avoid stomach upsets. The prime minister also, media say, still consults memos reflecting on mistakes that he jotted down after quitting. Even some opposition members say Abe and his aides display a better ability to govern than the first administration, when gaffes and scandals cost him five ministers including one who committed suicide. "I think we can see ... the effect of lessons they learned from the first Abe administration, which gave up mid-stream," said Tetsuro Fukuyama, an upper house lawmaker whose Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ousted Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2009, only to be crushed themselves at the polls in December. "I don't know (if he is a changed man), but I sense that those close to him are pulling together more effectively." That said, members of Abe's team do occasionally show signs of singing a bit out of tune. Finance Minister and former premier Taro Aso - who some suspect of dreaming of a come-back of his own - said on Tuesday Japan had no plan to buy foreign currency-denominated bonds as part of a monetary easing programme. A day earlier, Abe had said buying foreign bonds was a monetary option. Those who know Abe say the 58-year-old leader, who goes to Washington this week with a message that Japan is reviving its economic and diplomatic strength, has learned a lot from his first term, when critics said he packed his cabinet with inexperienced cronies. The grandson of a prime minister and scion of an elite political family, Abe was 52 when he first took office, making him Japan's youngest post-war premier. He also succeeded a popular prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, without having to fight a general election. "He's more mature, seasoned, a sort of a 'come-back' guy after seeing hell," said Kunihiko Miyake, a former diplomat who has known Abe for years. "Before, he was a person in a hurry and wanted results soon, impatiently. Now he is comfortable and not in a hurry," added Miyake, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies in Tokyo. COMPARISONS NOT ALWAYS ODIOUS Critics say Abe's improved image benefits from the low bar set by predecessors, including himself. Abe is Japan's seventh prime minister since Koizumi ended a five-year term in 2006. "He's assiduously avoiding previous mistakes," said Brad Glosserman, executive director at Pacific Forum CSIS in Hawaii. "It's not a lot to be proud of." Clearly, Abe has rethought his priorities, not least to avoid a repeat of the stinging 2007 upper house election loss that created a deadlock in parliament and helped seal his fate. Abe has made reviving the economy his top priority, a big shift from his first term when his main agenda was to loosen the limits of Japan's pacifist constitution on the military and restore national pride and patriotism. Those remain vital to Abe's platform, but for now are taking something of a back seat. Rising Tokyo share prices and support rates of over 60 percent suggest investors and voters are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to "Abenomics" - a mix of big spending and hyper-easy monetary policies with a promise of reforms to come. "The strategy is totally different. He's clearly decided that at least until the upper house election (in July), he is going to focus on the economy," said Gerry Curtis, a Columbia University political science professor who has watched some two dozen Japanese prime ministers come and go during his career. Well aware voters punished the Democrats for their perceived inability to govern, Abe's team is taking pains to act quickly when crises erupt, such as this month's North Korean nuclear test. The tight grip at the top also applies to damage control. Finance Minister Aso, known for verbal bloopers, quickly retracted a remark last month that implied terminally ill old people should be allowed to die quickly to save tax money. And a junior cabinet minister swiftly resigned this month just before a magazine was to publish a damaging article. Early success might, ironically, carry its own risks. "If he wins the next upper house election, he would have no obstacles in parliament," Miyake said, adding that Abe could become over-confident. "He might be tempted to rush ahead again, although I don't think he would." A further flare-up in ties with China or South Korea, strained by territorial feuds and disputes over Japan's wartime history, could also erode Abe's image as a deft leader. Whether Abe can survive the rough patches expected when his honeymoon with markets and voters fades remains to be seen. "The consistency of the message is one thing that has encouraged people to think more positively," said Jeffrey Young, research director at U.S.-based hedge fund Woodbine Capital, referring to Abe's monetary easing push. "The government must know it is all done on the basis of expectations and are wondering at what point the public, media and the markets will turn to results." (Editing by Dean Yates) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Fighting breaks out in Sudan's Blue Nile border state Posted: 18 Feb 2013 07:17 PM PST CAIRO (Reuters) - Fighting broke out in a Sudanese border state between the military and rebels trying to overthrow President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, both sides said on Monday, and the government said its forces had killed scores of insurgents. The rebels gave a different account, saying the government forces had attacked civilian areas.
The conflict in Blue Nile started in September 2011, a few months after neighbouring South Sudan seceded under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, another Sudanese border state, fought as part of the southern rebel army during that war, but were left on the Sudanese side of the border after partition. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes because of the fighting since 2011. On Monday, Sudanese state media reported the armed forces had taken the Muffa area in Blue Nile and "expelled the remnants of the rebels," who had been backed by tanks and artillery. The army killed 66 rebels, it said, quoting the armed forces spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid. The armed forces suffered a "small number" of casualties, it said, without giving details. The rebels, known as the SPLM-North, said the Sudanese armed forces and allied militia had started a "military dry season campaign" on February 14 in a heavily populated area at Muffa. It said the fighting had forced thousands of civilians to flee toward Ethiopia and South Sudan. Events in the two states are difficult to verify independently because of government restrictions on media, and the two sides often give conflicting versions of the fighting. Some 2 million people died in Sudan's north-south civil war, which ended in 2005 with the peace deal that paved the way for South Sudan's independence. Khartoum accuses Juba of continuing to back the rebels in Blue Nile and South Kordofan. South Sudan denies the accusation. (Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz and Khalid Abdelaziz; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Cuban dissident blogger met by small protests in Brazil Posted: 18 Feb 2013 07:11 PM PST RECIFE, Brazil (Reuters) - Cuba's best-known dissident, blogger Yoani Sanchez, was greeted on Monday by small groups of protesters who called her a CIA agent upon arriving in Brazil, the first stop on a whirlwind tour that will take her to a dozen countries. A smiling Sanchez brushed off the student demonstrators who sympathize with Cuba's communist government, saying she wished Cubans had the same freedom to protest back home. Sanchez's arrival in Brazil kicked off her first trip abroad since the Cuban government finally granted her a passport after more than 20 refusals in the past five years.
About eight students from a local university shouted "sell out" and "CIA agent" as Sanchez arrived in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Recife, according to a Reuters photographer who was at the airport. "Viva la democracia! I want that democracy for my country too," she responded. Another group of protesters met her at the Salvador airport in Bahia state and police were called in to escort her when demonstrators interrupted a debate in the nearby municipality of Feira de Santana. The Cuban government labels dissidents as mercenaries on the payroll of the United States, its decades-old ideological foe. Sanchez, a 37-year-old Havana resident, has incurred the wrath of Cuba's government for constantly criticizing its communist system in her "Generation Y" blog, www.desdecuba.com/generaciony, and using Twitter to denounce repression. Sanchez, who was starting an 80-day tour, was granted a passport two weeks ago under Cuba's sweeping immigration reform that went into effect this year. She has won several international prizes for blogging about life in Cuba but has been unable to collect them until now. "I am so happy. It has been five years of struggle," Sanchez told local media. "Unfortunately, in Cuba you are punished for thinking differently. Opinions against the government have terrible consequences, arbitrary arrests, surveillance," she said in an interview with GloboNews television. Sanchez's visit touched a political nerve in Brazil, where the left-leaning government of President Dilma Rousseff is often criticized for not taking a more critical stance with Cuba's one-party system and the repression of political dissent there. BRAZIL OPPOSITION UPSET According to local news magazine Veja, Cuban diplomats recently met with militants from Brazil's ruling Workers' Party in Brasilia and asked them to organize protests against Sanchez during her stay in the South American country. One junior official in the Rousseff administration was present at the meeting, Veja said. The report prompted some opposition legislators in Congress to accuse the Rousseff government of tacitly endorsing a Cuban-led smear campaign against Sanchez. One senator, Alvaro Dias, said he would demand that the government formally explain its role in what he called the "unacceptable monitoring" of Sanchez. Rousseff's office later said in a statement that the official had participated in a routine meeting about Cuban migration policy and preparations for Sanchez's visit at the embassy and did not stay the whole time. In the interview with GloboNews, Sanchez said recent reforms undertaken by President Raul Castro have been positive but minimal, such as the lifting of bans that prevented Cubans from buying new cars and other goods. "There is a difference between the reforms we dream of and the reforms that are being carried out," she said. "We dream of freedom of association, freedom of expression, but it does not look like we will get this too soon." Sanchez, considered Cuba's pioneer in social networking, told Reuters earlier this week in Havana that, in addition to Brazil, she planned to travel to Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, and visit the headquarters of Google, Twitter and Facebook in the United States. (Reporting by Helia Scheppa; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Todd Benson and Eric Beech) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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