Town hall meetings have been a staple of the American political process, so when Japan decided it was ready to try a bold experiment in grass-roots democracy, they embraced what they called “TM.” As Norimitsu Onishi explained, it was an exercise in which Japan’s political leaders “met and talked with voters more accustomed to a political system in which decisions were simply handed down.”
There was just one small problem with the Japanese town hall system — it too closely resembled the Bush White House approach. (via Crowley)
[A] government report released Wednesday concluded that two-thirds of the town meetings organized by the Japanese government since 2001 were Soviet-style performances with people paid to ask planted questions — favorable to the government. […]
Out of 174 meetings, 115, or 66 percent, were staged in some fashion. In 71 meetings, organizers mobilized participants and, in at least one case, excluded a perceived troublemaker who had spoken in a loud voice and held posters in previous meetings. In 29 meetings, government officials posing as audience members asked questions; in 15, organizers coached audience members.
In total, 65 people were paid $43 each to ask questions, according to the report, which was commissioned after earlier revelations about planted questions.
The prearranged questions raised concerns that “public opinion was being misled in order to instill government policy,” the report said.
To which one could almost hear Bush administration officials asking, “So, what’s wrong with that?”
The part of this story that bothers me is that, in Japan, this is considered a serious scandal. After all, government officials abused the public trust, setting up what appeared to be a forum for legitimate dialog between the public and their elected leaders, when it fact it was choreographed stagecraft.
This bothers me, of course, because the Bush administration has been doing this for years, and it isn’t scandalous at all. The Bush gang has rewritten the rules on how free people in a democracy can interact with their elected leaders:
* Tickets to town hall forums can and will be limited to those who agree with the president.
* People who speak at town hall forums will be pre-screened and prompted on what to say.
* Town hall forums will, on occasion, be rehearsed in advance.
* In some instances, those expected to receive tickets to a public event on public property with a public official should expect to sign loyalty oaths to the president.
* Law-abiding ticket-holding citizens can expect to be removed from town hall forums if presidential employees decide they disapprove of your attire and/or bumper sticker.
If Japanese officials were watching all of this, they probably thought it was an entirely legitimate way to mantain “message discipline.” The difference, of course, is that a) the Bush White House, unlike the Japanese government, didn’t hide these tactics from the public; and b) the Japanese people seem to mind.
“It was really unfortunate that these meetings, which were meant to be a dialogue with the public, ended up betraying public expectations and creating distrust in the government,” said Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the current chief cabinet secretary.
And it’s equally unfortunate that the same betrayal happens here routinely and no one seems to mind.