IT IS rare in Japan to find one bold political leader, and even rarer to find two. Yet since the start of the year, two men with wildly different personalities, political styles and power bases have launched daring projects that they hope will help shake Japan out of its long economic funk. They may end up colliding with each other.The first is the prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda. At the opening of the Diet, or parliament, on January 24th, he said he would present a bill by the end of March that aims to double the consumption tax, to 10%. For well over a decade, the political establishment has acknowledged the need for an increase, but its nerve has failed it time and again, despite a ballooning government debt and rising social-security costs for an ageing population. Mr Noda is now gambling his political life on such a tax rise. He also wants to slash the number of Diet members from 480 in the lower house to 395, cut the salaries of civil servants by 8%, and reduce their housing benefits.Any one of these measures would, in a Japanese context, be considered bold. All three together seems almost quixotic in a...
Written by The Economist: Asia on January 26th, 2012 with comments disabled.
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And fine cellar confiscated
IT WAS, says Gowher Rizvi, a close adviser to Bangladesh’s prime minister, “very quickly nipped in the bud”. He was talking of a coup plot foiled by the army. The schemers—16 were involved, and some are on the run—included disgruntled mid-ranking officers, retired officers, and others abroad. He claims investigators found a list of prominent people to be assassinated, and another list of generals expected to be “potential partners”.Bangladesh has faced dozens of coups, failed or not, in its 40 years. But for an army spokesman to give details of one, on January 19th, was unusual. He named the plotters and blamed them for inducing others to revolt (by passing on provocative e-mails and posting on Facebook). The conspirators, he said, shared extreme religious beliefs.The official view is that dogged opponents of Sheikh Hasina Wajed’s elected regime must now be rooted out, especially from the army. These include Islamists—many supposedly recruited to the army in the early 2000s—and those who oppose ongoing war-crimes trials (over killings during the...
Written by The Economist: Asia on January 26th, 2012 with comments disabled.
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Dennis’s mum plays the pokies too
IN AUSTRALIAN politics, “pokies” loom large. These gambling machines (poker machines, or pokies in Oz-speak) crowd the country’s pubs and clubs. Australians lose more than A$19 billion ($20 billion) a year gambling, about two-thirds of it on pokies. Julia Gillard, the prime minister, put together a minority Labor government 16 months ago partly on the strength of a deal to attack perceived problem gambling. On January 21st, after a campaign by Australia’s clubs industry, she ditched the deal. In doing so, she has further complicated her government’s chances of survival at the election due next year.Ms Gillard struck the pokies deal with Andrew Wilkie, a Tasmanian independent elected to parliament in 2010. Mr Wilkie was alarmed by gambling addiction and its baneful effect on addicts’ families in his constituency. About 600,000 Australians (4% of adults) play pokies at least once a week. On average they pour an astonishing A$8,000 each year into the machines. Ms Gillard promised Mr Wilkie legislation by next May that from 2014 would make pokies carry...
Written by The Economist: Asia on January 26th, 2012 with comments disabled.
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Waiting for Salman
EVEN a magical realist would struggle with the unlikely tale that unfolded this week at the Jaipur literary festival. Salman Rushdie, an author whom Islamists revile, stayed away, warned by police that two assassins had been dispatched by a Mumbai mafioso to prowl among the literati and murder him.When it turned out that the police story was more inventive than most novels, Mr Rushdie offered to speak by video link. Yet the plug was pulled on that, amid talk of baying mobs of Muslims. When it turned out that the police story was more inventive than most novels, Mr Rushdie offered to speak by video link. Yet the plug was pulled on that, amid talk of baying mobs of Muslims. In protest, four writers read out extracts from his book “The Satanic Verses”, which is banned in India. The festival organisers, having sought legal advice, warned the writers that they might be investigated or charged. Legal process in India can be capricious and interminable and the four writers felt sufficiently threatened to quit the festival in a hurry. In the cold light of day,...
Written by The Economist: Asia on January 26th, 2012 with comments disabled.
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