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THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011
opinion
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Canada’s NDP, vowing change, surge in polls By David Ljunggren small party once regarded as a bunch of leftwing do-gooders is turning Canada’s election campaign upside down with a dynamic message, ambitious social spending plans and a nod to the powerful business community. The left-leaning New Democrats are surging in the polls and could conceivably end up in second place, eclipsing the main opposition Liberal Party and denying the ruling Conservatives their chance of winning a long-desired majority. Alternatively, the party could split the leftof-center vote and allow the Conservatives to win additional seats, perhaps even handing them a majority. Still open is whether people agree with the policies espoused by charismatic party leader Jack Layton or if they will back him because they are fed up with the larger parties. “I would not interpret this in any way, shape or form that the country is going socialist ... it’s just a dynamic of personality that’s shifting people over,” Ipsos-Reid pollster John Wright told Reuters. An Ekos poll released on Tuesday put the Conservatives at 33.9 percent, the New Democrats at 27.9 percent and the Liberals at 24.0 percent. Last election, the New Democrats scored 18.2 percent. The man largely responsible for the astounding leap in popularity is party leader Layton, a jovial 60year-old grandfather who pounds home the message that Ottawa is broken and someone has to stand up for ordinary people. “I think Canada needs a change. I don’t think we should go back to the same old, same old situation,” he said on Tuesday. “I am not running for prime minister in order to attack other party leaders. I am running ... to attack the issues and problems people are facing.” Pollsters say Layton’s message is resonating among voters fed up with acerbic federal politics and endless battles between the Conservatives and the Liberals, traditionally Canada’s largest parties. Layton, who is recovering from cancer and walks with a cane after hip surgery, openly dotes on his granddaughter and is happy to bash out the tune “Hit the road, Jack” on a piano. Frank Graves of polling firm Ekos says Layton’s message of change is particularly appealing to women and the young - two potentially crucial sets of voters. “They like his positive style, funny disposition, courageous demeanor with his cane and getting out there talking about the average guy,” he said. Pollsters admit they were shocked when the New Democrats, who have never come close to holding power in Canada, started climbing in the polls. One reason is sheer good luck. The party competes for the center-left vote with the Liberals and the separatist Bloc Quebecois, which are both running underwhelming campaigns. The Bloc, which only runs in the French-speaking province of Quebec, could be particularly vulnerable. Christian Bourque of Quebec-based pollsters Leger Marketing said Quebecers saw Layton as a refreshing alternative, although it was unclear how many of them agreed with his platform. “It’s part protest, it’s part ‘I’m fed up with the old parties’, part ‘At least he’s in it for the little guy’,” he told Reuters. The NDP was floundering in near irrelevance when Layton took over in 2003 and gradually introduced policies designed to maintain the support of progressives while trying to win over those put off by its tax-and-spend reputation. The New Democrats now say they will balance the federal budget in four years, matching a Conservative promise, and vow to lower taxes for small businesses. They will raise the corporate tax rate to 19.5 percent from 16.5 percent but keep it lower than the equivalent rate in the United States. The party, which regularly rails against tax cuts for big businesses, also promises to limit interest rates on credit cards, implement a cap-and-trade program to limit carbon emissions and hire more doctors and nurses. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff dismissed the program as uncosted “science fiction” and others are also skeptical.—Reuters
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Hacked Sony risks repeating PR gaffes By Tim Kelly ony Corp’s handling of a massive Internet security breach is becoming a public relations nightmare reminiscent of Toyota Motor’s bungled recalls response last year, fuelling criticism of Corporate Japan’s standards of disclosure. Sony said Tuesday that hackers had breached its online PlayStation network a week earlier, compromising confidential including the names, addresses and possibly credit card data of 77 million users. The delay, which Sony said was needed to conduct a forensic investigation, may remind its overseas customers of the foot dragging by Toyota that earned the Japan’s leading automaker the distain of consumers. “Given the layers of corporate management and the lengthy consultations that tend to be par for Japanese corporations a week is not that slow, but for the people whose information has been breached, it’s definitely a week too slow,” said Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University in Japan, who has written about transparency. Blessed with firstrate technology that helps them compete around the world, Japanese corporations are sometimes hobbled by second-rate public relations. At home,
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where customers complain little and rarely sue, public relations gaffes are not a major problem, but in foreign markets that now account for most of their sales and growth, such a failing can be a costly handicap. Customers of Sony’s PlayStation network, nine out of 10 who are based in the United States or Europe, were quick to express their anger. “The fact that you’ve waited this long to divulge this information to your customers is deplorable. Shame on you,” read one message on the PlayStation Network blog from a user under the name Korbei83. For the first two weeks of Toyota’s recall crisis in 2010, the carmaker’s CEO, Akio Toyoda stayed silent, angering customers in the United States, where unintended acceleration incidents were blamed for hundreds of accidents. When he finally did appear, Toyoda apologized and cried, and the car maker was eventually exonerated by an inquiry that found drivers were mostly at fault. But by then the damage was done. UK-based Branding agency, Interbrand in its annual Best of Global Brand survey last year estimated the value of the Toyota brand fell 16 percent or $5.1 billion. Also in 2010, the U.S. auto
market grew 11 percent while Toyota’s sales dipped 0.4 percent. “In the US the CEO’s responsibility is to be the huckster in chief. That’s definitely not a Japanese style,” Temple University’s Kingston said. The world caught a recent glimpse of Japan’s information-scarce corporate culture and shy CEO’s following the nation’s earthquake and tsunami on March 11. As people in Japan and neighboring countries clamored for information on radiation spewing from a nuclear plant 240 kilometers north of Tokyo, Mastaka Shimizu, the CEO of plant owner Tokyo Electric Power hid away from the public gaze for a month. “The first thing (companies) have to do is say this is an issue, this is what we know about it,” said Deborah Hayden, managing partner in Tokyo at communications consultancy Kreab & Gavin Anderson. “Sometimes at Japanese companies, the ability to give authority to a spokesperson is perhaps a little slow and the spokesperson hasn’t got the full authority to speak on behalf of the company on a serious issue,” she added. Sony CEO Howard Stringer has not commented on the security breach. The pressure on companies to be more timely and open in Japan is less because not doing so is less likely to result in legal action, noted Makoto Ikeya of NERA con-
sulting in Tokyo, who’s an expert on litigation arising from inaccurate or untimely disclosure. “Compared with the United States, the number of litigations bought for misstatements or untimely disclosure is still very small,” Ikeya said. That means “it may take some time for them to get accustomed to the type of legal actions taken in say the United States,” he added. With criticism mounting, Sony yesterday changed its statement explaining the reason why it waited a week to reveal the breach by hackers. After saying it turned off the PlayStation network when it found user information had been compromised, the company now says its investigation didn’t reveal the “scope of the breach” until Tuesday. It also issued a thorough, 17-point Q&A on the breach on its website yesterday after the media storm erupted. But with US Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal demanding an explanation for Sony’s week of silence, the Japanese company is under pressure to give a more detailed account. The only silver lining for Sony, said Temple University’s Kingston, is that Toyota’s poor response last year means expectations of a quick and full response are not high. “Toyota did everybody a favor, they set the bar low,” he said. — Reuters
Thailand generals go on offensive By Martin Petty hailand’s military is on the offensive - and not just in its deadly border skirmishes with Cambodia. For decades, the country’s history has been shaped by the balance of power between three institutions - the monarchy, the military, and parliament. With elections looming that could upset this fragile balance once again, Thailand’s generals have come out fighting. For investors, the risks are rising. The last time the military grabbed a dominant role in politics, following a coup in 2006, the stock market collapsed following disastrous use of capital controls that took months to unwind. There is also no guarantee that another bid by the military to reassert a dominant role would be as bloodless as in 2006. Fighting on the border with Cambodia has killed at least 14 people since last Friday. Both sides blame each other. Thailand has rebuffed international mediation and withdrawn from defence ministerial talks, adding fuel to the crisis. The timing is conspicuous. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjaiva’s government, which came to power in 2008 with the help of the military, plans to hold elections by July. Few have as much to lose as the military’s top brass if the opposition prevails. Political analysts and government sources say Thailand’s top generals appear to be taking a two-pronged approach, fanning the crisis with Cambodia to unify Thais behind the army while going on the political offensive at home. While Thailand has always had extraordinarily tough laws protecting its monarchy, they are being invoked with unusual frequency. In recent weeks, army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha has
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threatened legal action against a prominent academic advocating reform of the monarchy and against anti-government “red shirt” demonstrators allied with the opposition. “Renewed violence on the border seems to relate to the Thai military’s current determination both to assert itself and to create an atmosphere of crisis,” said Michael Montesano, a fellow at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Which side is the main aggressor in the border conflict, the deadliest in nearly two decades, remains a mystery but few believe the fighting is really about sovereignty over heavily land-mined jungles and crumbling Hindu temples. The election and a possible change in government could spell trouble for Thailand’s military, whose budget has swelled under the ruling coalition that came to power in a 2008 parliamentary vote influenced by the army. At stake, too, is a royalist establishment fiercely at odds with the opposition, some of whose grassroots supporters advocate republicanism and reforms to the monarchy at a delicate time with 83-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, an almost divine figure whose picture is hung on the walls of millions of Thai homes, hospitalised since Sept 2009. During a recent news briefing, the army’s spokesman said he hoped Thais would see a link between “monarchy-insulting elements” and “political groupings” before casting votes in the election, a comment widely seen as a veiled attempt to discredit the opposition Puea Thai Party and their “red shirt” allies. But such rhetoric could backfire for the military, and the monarchy it claims to protect. The opposition Puea Thai
remains popular among Thailand’s rural poor and is tightly controlled by exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a divisive, twice-elected tycoon the military and royalist establishment toppled in the 2006 coup. Since then, the military’s annual budget has nearly doubled to 154 billion baht ($5 billion). Rumours of another coup continue to swirl as insiders talk of strains in Abhisit’s ties with the armed forces. Another coup could prevent the election and ensure the opposition stays out of power. But it could backfire and provoke violence from the red shirts whose protests last year paralysed Bangkok and led to clashes that killed 91 people. “We have learned lessons from the 2006 coup. We are operating in a volatile environment now and just taking over peacefully isn’t going to happen, even if it’s the best thing for the country theoretically,” said a retired army officer close to the top generals. He requested anonymity. The Thai army has for decades made protecting the monarchy a priority, guaranteeing the military political influence. “ That balance of power between key institutions in Thailand is being threatened,” said Karn Yuenyong, director of Siam Intelligence Unit, an independent think tank. “What we are seeing are reactions to that by all groups - those who want to maintain the status quo and those who are calling for reform of the institution (the monarchy).” Ultra-nationalist “yellow shirts” and some influential conservatives fear pro-Thaksin forces could return to office, accelerating calls to reform the monarchy, and have urged a boycott of the poll. Some analysts say hawkish generals allied with nationalists could be
trying to escalate the border conflict to scuttle the election. “The border issue and sovereignty issue matter to a group of conservative elites in Thailand and this is one way the Thai army exerts its loyalty,” Karn added. The monarchy is an extremely sensitive subject in Thailand. Perceived insults against the crown, or lese-majeste, carry jail terms of up to 15 years - the toughest in the world. Prayuth has ordered legal action against three red shirt leaders for speeches made at an April 10 rally he said were offensive to the monarchy. Other army units followed suit with near-daily pledges of support for the king. Three battalions of troops lined up last week in the pouring rain flanked by armoured trucks, helicopters and heavy machine guns in an elaborate combat exercise during which they pledged their allegiance to the royal institution. A censorship blitz by an army-
led Internal Securities Operations Command has led to the closure of radio stations, publications and tens of thousands of websites, while Prayuth has ordered armyowned Channel 5 TV to insert documentaries honouring the monarchy after each day’s royal news programs. Critics say the army is among a growing number of political players who are abusing the lesemajeste law to silence and slur their opponents. Some warn it could deepen a polarising crisis triggered by the military’s coup against Thaksin. “ The military used its loyalty to the monarchy to justify illegal action in launching a coup and has intensified the conflict,” said political scientist Pavin Chachavalpongpun. “Lesemajeste is being used as a political weapon. It’s dangerous, because when used to undermine opponents, it risks undermining Thailand’s most important institution.”— Reuters
A convoy of Thai military vehicles passes down a road in Surin province near the Thai-Cambodian border yesterday. — AFP