61846    During this period, the LDP has returned to power after only 10 months of being the opposition party and is currently supporting the Murayama administration as a ruling coalition.

61847    That LDP will hold the annual party convention on the 19th of this month.

61848    However, we want to ask if the party revitalization efforts sworn by President Kono along with party members in the Diet, have been carried out with heroic resolve?

61849    Was their return to power a result of reviewing their past?

61850    While the draft of basic statements such as "party principles," "new mission statement," and "new declaration" prepared by the party fundamentals investigation committee aiming for the revitalization of the party will be proposed at the convention, to be frank, these are nothing but a lineup of lax and feeble words that can't be less related to the rejuvenation of the party.

61851    On how the LDP handled the constitution issue, which attracted great attraction, initially it presented a watered-down report for the amendment.

61852    While being questioned about the strong suggestion that the LDP was playing party politics to get cozy with fellow coalition parties such as the Social Democratic Party and Sakigake, we applauded the LDP decision to attempt to clearly define the opposite views while the political reorganization without opposite views is in progress.

61853    But words and phrases were revised again and again, with those for constitutional amendment regaining ground and the advocates of the current constitution fighting back, and ultimately the report ended up with elusive wording as a compromise between the arguments from the two opposing sides.

61854    Consequently, we are totally at a loss as to how the LDP will deal with the constitutional debate.

61855    Such ambiguity is by and large in common with the three basic statements and party reform.

61856    In party reform, the elimination of factions, which had been the never-ending issue with the party, was forced through and all of the factions put down their signs and closed down their offices last December.

61857    However, as "the policy-study groups and social groups will not be considered as factions," policy-study groups have sprouted like mushrooms.

61858    They are nothing but factions remodeled into policy-study groups and their activities and functions are exactly the same as the factions before them.

61859    We have to make sure it to be strongly pointed out that the specific measures to thoroughly clean up the party's money-oriented and corrupt status and to reinforce the self-purification capability that President Kono had urged have been practically left untouched.

61860    In general, now that they have returned to power, the sense of crisis that hung over the party when it fell to the status of opposition party and the excitement over the rejuvenation of the party have all but evaporated, as if to say all is forgotten once the danger has passed.