The assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last Friday (July 8) shocked the world.
Reports said the suspect committed the crime because of Abe's ties to a religious group he hated, but some right-wing politicians in Japan took the opportunity to campaign for the upper house election, hoping voters would support them in pushing for constitutional amendments to "fulfill Abe's will".
During Abe's administration, he manipulated right-leaning populism, but now his remains are being used for political purposes, which has caused quite different and strong reactions on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, making his unfortunate deceased even more grief-stricken.
Populist turmoil in society is often related to politicians' hype, ranging from raucous, tearing and uneasy, to severe consequences. The congressional riots instigated by former US President Trump last year were almost out of control.
Compared with Abe, who leans to the right and advocates constitutional revision, the populist politics in the United Kingdom and the United States in recent years is undoubtedly more unsightly.
Among them, in order to win the election, British Prime Minister Johnson, who came to power with the help of populist ideology, was eventually ousted by populism because he never solved economic and social problems, and was forced by the Conservative Party cabinet members collectively. Last week, he finally announced his resignation extremely reluctantly. Going to the post of Conservative Party leader, the prime minister's career has officially entered the penultimate stage.
On July 7, local time, Johnson announced his resignation as British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader outside the Prime Minister's Office at 10 Downing Street in London.
(Associated Press)
By hyping populism, the upper-level politicians finally lost to populism
On the surface, Johnson stepped down because he lost his personal integrity in events such as "Partygate" and the deputy whip's sex scandal, but the integrity of politicians is important, but a few integrity scandals alone are not enough to remove him from office.
Johnson, who is known for his outspoken remarks, is not a political leader who sells his personality as a selling point. His ability to reach the peak of power in the UK mainly depends on making good promises to voters on various difficult issues.
He claimed that he would lead the UK to leave the EU smoothly, reduce European immigration to increase local employment and deal with the Irish border issue, and claimed that the EU funds saved would be used to increase social security projects such as medical expenses.
When the new crown epidemic hit in 2020, Johnson promised to stimulate the British economic recovery after the epidemic with a major plan of "Roosevelt New Deal" style.
After Brexit, the British people feel deeply powerless about the inability of political leaders to solve the current difficulties, so many people place their hopes on the seemingly capable Johnson.
At the end of 2019, he led the Conservative Party to its biggest general election victory since Mrs Thatcher, proving that there were indeed many people who had high hopes for him at the time.
However, good times don't last. In May this year, the Conservative Party lost nearly 500 seats in the local elections in the United Kingdom. After just two and a half years, Johnson fell from the altar.
Voters who support Johnson pay more attention to his ability to solve the current plight of the UK than to his personal morals. However, the reality is not as good as expected, and the political "cheque" written by Johnson has not been able to be cashed in recent years.
Today, the political dividend of Brexit "success" is slowly fading, but problems are gradually emerging.
Even with the removal of European immigrants, the British economy has not improved significantly. On the contrary, London's status as a financial center is under threat, and the Irish border issue remains unresolved.
On the other hand, not only has the medical problem not improved, a new crown epidemic has exposed the serious shortcomings of the British government and medical system in responding to emergency public health events.
Since the beginning of this year, the economic recovery after the new crown epidemic has also been brutally interrupted by unprecedented high inflation.
In the final analysis, the lack of integrity was just the last straw that broke Johnson.
As an opinion piece in the Financial Times put it, Johnson's government is like a "Ponzi scheme that lacks investors".
Johnson is good at making good promises to a restive electorate to get support, but he lacks the ability to deliver on those promises.
He can only keep making more unrealistic promises to cover up previously unfulfilled promises until voters no longer trust him.
The new crown epidemic has exposed serious shortcomings in the British government and medical system in responding to public health emergencies.
(Associated Press)
Johnson is not a politician with political vision who can govern the country well, but a speculative politician who loves power. His success fully reflects the extreme populist trend in Europe and the United States in recent years.
Long before the prime minister, Johnson sensed that the public was blaming economic and social problems such as economic injustice for joining the EU. He then used the public's ill-informed understanding of political issues to promote Brexit to earn support, even if he In fact, it lacks the strength to fulfill the promise.
The reason why populism is populism is that it infinitely magnifies the extreme part of public opinion, and believes that subjective feelings can surpass objective conditions to construct a new political reality.
The political concerns of the people in the populist trend are real, but their methods are often just the wishful thinking of the people, and often lack feasibility and reality.
It's like thinking that the UK's economic structure problems are caused by joining the EU, thinking that as long as it drives out European immigrants and leaves the EU, the UK can return to the good old days.
The core of this populist trend of thought comes from the continuous widening of the economic development gap between urban and rural areas and the disparity between the rich and the poor in the UK after joining the European Union. Meanwhile, social security such as medical care has failed to keep up with the needs of the aging population.
These problems are real, but to think that leaving the EU will solve or improve them is an unfounded political illusion.
Populism reflects social dissatisfaction that politicians cannot be dragged away
The difference between populist politicians and politicians is that they do not have a feasible plan to solve real-world problems, but only care about how to use the irrationality of populism to win political power for themselves.
Therefore, they will not refute the unrealistic part of the populist ideological trend, but will follow everything, and even deliberately amplify their anxiety and create enemies, and use the support of the masses to win power for themselves.
Populist politicians only think about votes and their status, they don't care what path the country will take.
King Louis XV of France is said to have said, "After me is the flood." His original intention may have been otherwise, but it was interpreted by later generations as political figures who only care about their own political self-interest, which can undoubtedly describe these politicians.
In recent years, populism has gradually become a method of winning elections in Western democratic elections.
Trump's victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is a milestone for Western populism in recent years.
Trump saw the unfairness of economic development brought about by globalization and the anxiety of the middle class about the decline in the quality of life for some people in the United States. Immigrants take jobs away from American families and incite middle-class fears of social security on the left.
In the end, Trump won the election, but the United States was further engulfed in political and social divisions.
In recent Western democratic elections, populism has gradually become a method of winning elections.
The picture shows Trump speaking at the "Save America" campaign conference on July 9, 2022.
(Getty Images)
Politicians are accustomed to making unrealistic empty promises that they might win an election or two, as did Trump in the United States, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and Britain's Johnson.
Japan's Liberal Democratic Party has relied on right-wing support for years, but has been unable to get the country back on track since the economy collapsed in the 1990s.
Shinzo Abe tried to launch a new economic policy to make good promises for the people and rebuild a "good country". However, Abenomics pursued monetary easing without changing the competitiveness of the economic structure. It only benefited big companies and did little to help the people.
The Jingwei behind the assassination last week is still under investigation, but the social problems caused by religious groups have been ignored, which may also be the cause of Abe's killing.
Even if Japanese politicians use this incident to win an election, if they still fail to solve the serious problems of economic development, they may eventually perish in populism.
Democracy is a good thing, but populism is not.
The various chaos that have occurred in Western society, including Japan, in recent years should make Hong Kong people reflect on their ignorance and reflect on the reasons for their political waste in the past.
In the past, discussions of democracy in Hong Kong always had a populist flavor.
Democracy politicians always regard public opinion as the golden rule, and some politicians with ulterior motives even take advantage of the opportunity, which eventually degenerates public opinion into a populist ideology that only talks about feelings but not logic, and talks about ideals but not pragmatism.
But examples like Johnson’s are enough to remind us that even in Western societies, populist ideas not only fail to solve the people’s problems, they are more likely to end up blowing back on those who try to play with fire.