What's the Point of this Failed Premier's String of Meetings?

The only reason for the revival conferences run by the rudderless, irresponsible Kan is to prolong his system of government. The biggest obstacle to rebuilding from the great quake is Kan himself. Getting together a bunch of academics who don't understand this point is not going to produce creative results. Real creativity requires a serious approach. This conference ought to be scrapped.

"The Congress dances, but it does not advance." — Archduke Rainer

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has a thing about making meetings. The latest conference to revive the nation, announced with much fanfare, is his 19th such meeting. There is even talk that he's planning to create a rebuilding headquarters. That would result in his 20th meeting. It is becoming increasingly clear that the objective of these meetings is to preserve Kan's government. There are no bureaucrats or people in positions of responsibility in these meetings. The biggest problem facing the government right now is that the administration doesn't work. Kan doesn't have the intention to get the bureaucrats moving; he just keeps shouting at them. Kan and the Democratic Party of Japan seem to have forgotten that the bureaucrats are people of pride.

The people are waking up to the fact that the biggest problem with the rebuilding effort after the quake is the irresponsible me-first philosophy of Prime Minister Kan. He doesn't have the vision, ideas or sense of responsibility that a political leader should have. Instead, every day he yells at the bureaucrats. Then he forms discussion groups filled with sycophantic academics who tell him what he wants to hear. When information from these discussions gets leaked to the press, he panics and denies that he said anything. And then he repeats the process. Most of the populace has the feeling that he's lying.

The revival conference is nothing more than a study group out to make Prime Minister Kan more popular. Academics of integrity must not join this group.

This is not the time for the premier to get lost in a fog of meeting-making. He needs to be brave enough to stop these useless meetings. The most effective move Kan can make to begin rebuilding from the disaster is to retire.