Nervous at Heckling

It is fair to say that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the most vulnerable political leader in being heckled. Although every former Prime Ministers kept on his speech in a noisy situation in the Diet, Abe cannot continue his words at the podium, when he is criticized by opposite legislators. When he stops his speech, he looks like an incompetent teacher in a classroom, being unable to calm his students down, standing with frustration on his face and waiting for silence with slight smile. That is supposedly because he is a political elite without many opportunities of debating against political enemies.

In policy speech to the Houses or discussion in Budget Committees, Abe frequently stops his speech, when lawmakers of opposite parties chant against him. “I can’t carry on in this noisy mood,” or “Stop their irregular voices, Mr. Chairman,” should be the ordinary appeal Abe made. In that situation, Abe is mostly making a long statement not related to the questions he is asked. Opposite parties are also frustrated with wasting their strictly limited time for question.

However, he feels free in making his own heckling at opposite lawmakers. When Yu-ichiro Tamaki with Democratic Party of Japan was questioning about money scandal of Minister of Agriculture, Kouya Nishikawa, in House of Representatives Budget Committee, Abe hurled words of “How about Japan Teachers Union? How about it?” Abe seemed to be saying that DPJ had also been suspicious in political donation from the union. DPJ appealed the Chairman of the Committee and Abe promised sincere attitude.

Opposite parties are angry at unfairness of Abe’s attitude on irregular statements in the Diet, because Abe only accuse the opposites, while ignoring hecklings of his colleagues in Liberal Democratic Party. One of the LDP lawmakers chanted “That’s the terrorist party, indeed,” during Chairman of Japan Communist Party was making a speech. Although the lawmaker apologized on his statement, Abe did nothing for restraining as the President of LDP. For him criticism on DPJ is ok, but on him is not tolerable. This is the way a dictator would think about leadership.

The Diet is located on the top of hierarchy of state power. A Prime Minister basically needs to obey requirements from the Diet. Lawmakers on both Houses have to recognize the erosion of dignity of “the highest organ of state power” by selfish behaviors of naïve Prime Minister. If they cannot take effective measures against it, the Diet gets close to the German parliament in Nazis era.