Landslide and Responsibility

(picture taken from Linda Sieg's Reuters blog)

I am not gonna talk about any disaster or whatnot but more about the current political updates here in Japan. As some of you already read the news, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ, Minshutō - 民主党) lead by Yukio Hatoyama has won the Lower House election on 30th August 2009. This marks a new history in Japan political landscape where the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, Jimintō - 自民党) who had ruled Japan since its formation in 1955 (post-war period) had lost goverment, and only manage to win 26.7% of lower house of Diet of Japan's seat.

That means a landslide victory for Hatoyama and his party, DPJ. And following normal Japanese response towards responsibility, Taro Aso is going to step down as LDP leader to take full responsibility for his party's defeat.

I'm not normally blog about politic since my topic of interest ranges from music, movie and daily personal stuff. Although I love to read about environment and sustainability things, still I'm not really keen to blog about those two topics either. All this while my life has been exposed to Malaysian political scene (since my dad is a huge fan of that :p), but I rather label Malaysia political milieu is a bit disappointing.

Nevertheless, observing foreign political process when I have the chance to (since here is where I'm studying now) is somehow interesting, with regards to comparing it with our political scene back in Malaysia. Watching all parties campaign in mass media (each parties have their own TV commercial, and equal coverage in news).

It is somehow feel like deja-vu to see DPJ landslide victory over LDP as the most recent election in Malaysia seen a close call to that situation. The different part is just UMNO, the Malaysia's ruling party since our independence in 1957 was not defeated, but lost its two third majority, the first time in our history as well. And Pak Lah didn't stepped down immediately in response to that.

Albeit their triumph over the current election, most Japanese I known (and went voting) says they're not really happy Hatoyama wins. They're quite unsure whether DPJ has enough financial ability to perform what they promised in their manifesto, and in today's Yomiuri Shinbun survey shown 66% respondents believe LDP will regain back their power, just mere 2 days after election. Frustration and exasperation aside, now people have to wait for the next 4 years to elect the government again.

Thus, place your vote wisely. Not based on manifestos, emotions, branding or image.

Cool fact: Taro Aso known for his fond interest in comics and anime, and Yukio Hatoyama is known as E.T (the alien) among his supporters and opposition alike.