Anti-Mori motion falls through

By F. J. Khergamvala

TOKYO, NOV. 20. An Opposition move to unseat the Government headed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Yoshiro Mori, through a no- confidence motion fizzled out for lack of support and ended in pandemonium in Parliament.

After considerable confusion about where he stood, the main challenger, Mr. Koichi Kato, from within Mr. Mori's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, came before the cameras at a hotel at nearly 10.30 p.m. (local time) and announced, ``I tried my best to change the leadership, but as I had always maintained, my efforts would be directed from within the party. Unfortunately, the best laid plans cannot succeed if there is absence of numbers.'' With those words, Mr. Kato asked his backers to stay away from the vote on the no-confidence motion.

Mr. Kato's main supporter, Mr. Taku Yamasaki, too bowed before the absence of numerical support, rather than rush to do battle on unequal terms. These comments, conceding to the intimidation of the ranks by the big guns within the ruling party, were in sharp contrast to Mr. Kato's confidence earlier in the day. ``We will have an evening of decisive battle'', said Mr Kato on Monday morning, as he mobilised his political forces to challenge Mr. Mori.

Throughout the day, back-room manipulators were preoccupied mustering the numbers and at the same time trying to work out a deal. It would not be surprising that the final deal includes that Mr. Mori must abdicate quite early, possibly immediately after the lower House adjourns on Dec. 1. For Mr. Mori, any deal to remove him would be an act of political euthanasia.

The Opposition required 50 seats from the Kato and Yamasaki allies to adopt the no-confidence motion. As the Kato and Yamasaki factions did their internal calculations, they were also negotiating deals on a compromise that would allow them not burn bridges with the parent party. Even as the debate on the Opposition motion was about to begin and Mr. Kato's emissary, a senior LDP figure, had hammered out a deal with the Mori backers, Mr. Kato told mediapersons that he and his supporters would abstain, not support the motion to oust Mr. Mori.

An hour later, he reversed himself, saying he and Mr. Yamasaki would support the motion, but asked both faction members to abstain. A few minutes later, perhaps responding to a real time feedback on numbers, Mr. Kato and Mr. Yamasaki backtracked again, reverting to abstention. In the end, just before the beginning of the plenary session to debate the no-confidence motion, discretion was seen to be the enduring option.

All the number crunching done by analysts showed a very close contest on whether Mr. Mori and the LDP's mainstream factions could weather a no-confidence motion by the four Opposition parties, supported formally by elements from within the LDP. Asahi TV and Mainichi surveys showed a clear majority in favour of ousting Mr. Mori. The media seemed to view as the best compromise an outcome where Mr. Kato ought not to be the immediate replacement.

Irrespective of the result in favour of Mr. Mori, he is doomed. For him personally, and the LDP it is a Pyrrhic victory that again exposed everything negative about it. As Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, the head of the main Opposition Democratic Party said, ``the very birth of the Mori Cabinet was suspicious. Now there are behind-the-scenes moves within the party to remove Mori.''

For the most part, Mr. Mori himself was a helpless bystander during the week-long political fencing, totally dependent on a few lieutenants acting in their own interests.

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