defense lobbyists

lobby (PERSUADE)

Defense lobbyists fallen into deep pit of greed

11/30/2007

Golf is a sport that respects Mother Nature. According to the Japan Golf Association, a ball that falls into a mole's or rabbit's hole can be pulled out and then dropped near the hole with no penalty. But it is against the rules to do so if the ball is in a hole dug by a dog, an animal that burrows only for pleasure.

Apparently, humans who have fallen into a deep pit of greed are beyond redemption by any rules.

Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya and his wife, Sachiko, were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of receiving bribes in the form of golfing trips arranged and paid for by a former senior executive and other personnel of a defense contractor.

But the golf-crazy former bureaucrat and his spouse could not be the only players in this scandal. This time, I want prosecutors to make sure they expose to taxpayers the dark shadows in which lawmakers affiliated with the defense industry have been scurrying around. The money spent on entertaining the Moriyas must have been peanuts compared with the vast sums of taxpayers' money misappropriated or abused.

From small arms to fighter planes, the prices of equipment bought by the Self-Defense Forces are said to be higher than those of American or European armed forces. Laymen have no way of judging the market value and performance of this state-of-the-art equipment. And since it is being purchased with taxpayers' money, the buyers feel no need to haggle, which enables the sellers to quote whatever price they want, making huge profits.

During the 1979 probe into the so-called Douglas-Grumman payoff scandal, Shigeki Ito (1925-1988), who would serve as public prosecutor general from 1985 to 1988, hinted at a development in the investigation targeting leading politicians when he told the Diet: "The important thing in any criminal investigation is to expose a great evil, not just dig up minor evil."

Unfortunately, the investigators stopped short of going the distance, and left intact the structure of vested interests that might be described figuratively as mole tunnels that are infested in the woods of defense spending.

Moles are voracious animals that devour earthworms, insects and any other small creatures that wander into their tunnels. Mole tunnels may be thought of as giant traps in themselves. Tunnels featuring "good living conditions" are inherited from one generation to the next.

The prosecutors must exterminate the great evil and the labyrinthine underground tunnel that leads to the national coffers.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 29(IHT/Asahi: November 30,2007)