[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[stefania]

Civil Disobedience Tiptoes Across Tehran

By MEHRDAD KHONSARI

(Printed in the New York Sun (Editorial & Opinion Section) – 29 December 2003)

Abraham Lincoln’s quip, “You can fool some of the some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time” certainly rings aloud as Iranians prepare to debate the upcoming elections to the ‘7th Islamic Majles’, planned for February 2004.

Indeed, these elections could well become an important turning point for the fortunes of the Islamic regime in Iran. By staying away from the polls - as they did in the much less publicized local elections earlier this year - the Iranian people are in a position to indicate in no uncertain terms that, while they may be incapable of peacefully removing their highly corrupt and vicious rulers from the seat of power, they are in no mood for allowing themselves to be used as a means for bestowing legitimacy upon a bloodstained regime that they so very much detest.

The truth has finally sunk in that neither the parliamentary election victory of the so-called reformers in 2000 nor the re-election of President Khatami in 2001 have made or will ever make any real difference in changing the political agenda in Iran. If anything, they have only succeeded in reconfirming a general belief amongst ordinary people that by participating in the numerous ‘vetted and otherwise manipulated’ elections that have been held since 1979, they have been nothing more than mere pawns in a cynical game to mislead world public opinion into believing that the people of Iran- unlike most of their neighbours - robustly enjoy the opportunity of having a real say in choosing their leaders and the policies they want.

The experiences of the past 7 years since the advent of President Khatami, have demonstrated that while ordinary citizens may go through the motions of turning up at regularly held elections, what they want or whom they elect makes very little impression on how the country is run. This is mainly due to the fact that standing above the election process, are those unelected officials, headed by the Supreme Leader, who assume the right to bypass people by playing the role of final arbiters on the flimsy and insupportable claim that they somehow carry the blessings and the benediction of the almighty.

Not so long ago, this outreageous proposition was audaciously discussed in a university conference held at the ‘School of Oriental and African Studies’ in London to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini. In the course of that event, the creation of such institutions as the ‘Majles’ was justified as a signal that the Supreme Leader was not insensitive to receiving ‘non binding advice’ from time to time. These candid assertions are most revealing in that they place whole concept behind holding multiple elections into a proper and realistic perspective.

This very argument was indeed one of the underlying reasons why the ‘Office for the Consolidation leader Abodollah Momeni has called for a general boycott of the upcoming elections. Mr. Momeni has been adamant in stressing the fact that holding elections while cynically ignoring the cause of the people was futile and did not serve to enhance the institutions of democracy in Iran.

Despite all these reminders, it does not seem all that long ago when the landslide victory of the reformist supporters of Mr. Khatami in the course of the elections to the Sixth Islamic Majles were, nonetheless, followed by an unexpectedly genuine sense of euphoria in nearly all quarters. Hopes were immediately raised that the new Majles would act to steer the country in a direction away from a fundamentalist agenda by pushing for greater openness and democracy. A highly respected academic friend in the UK who wrote to me at the time expressed his perceptions by noting:

“the recent election was not merely important because more moderate reformers got elected. It was a referendum on the entire system…. It has important repercussions not only for the future of the regime in Iran, but for the entire process of Islamic fundamentalism as a whole. No matter what one thinks of the Islamic Republic in Iran, the fact is that the Iranians have reasserted themselves against fanaticism and fundamentalism..... Rafsanjani's humiliation was not merely a personal defeat. It was humiliating for the entire system, because he, more than anybody else, represents the system. It shows that were Khamenei to take part in the election, he would do much worse. This is bound to undermine his authority and his ability to slow down the pace of reforms. For a change, it is time to be rather happy and optimistic about what is going on in Iran. I think that one can already see the peaceful ending of the Islamic Republic.....”

It is no secret that these perceptions were also shared in many of the world’s most important ‘corridors of power’. Unconcerned with the sufferings of a brutalized population and focussing purely on promoting their own self serving interests, many key European countries, in particular, used the election results to justify their policies of public support for what they knew to be a hated regime in the vain hope that the new reformers might provide the cheapest option for steering the country away from pursuing those dangerous policies - like promoting international terrorism or seeking weapons of mass destruction (WMD) - which could potentially have an adverse impact on them as well.

Sadly for all, including the democratic and peaceful opposition to the regime, this was not to be. Today, there is no longer any question in the minds of all Iranians that the Islamic regime - as it stand - is incapable of ever regaining any vestige of its former popularity or more importantly legitimacy. While, in the absence of a credibly respected and accepted alternative, the current state of affairs may well continue indefinitely into the future, but ordinary Iranians are most alert and as such highly disinclined to play further into the hands of the regime by turning up in large numbers to validate their own course of prescribed malady.

Also, the possibility that a low turn out might somehow ensure the victory of the hardliners at the next parliamentary elections no longer provides a credible motive for people to turn out in large numbers. People rightly feel exploited and betrayed by both Mr. Khatami and his brand of so-called reformers, who according to Mr. Momeni have rendered themselves devoid of any credibility by having squandered so many golden opportunities for pressing forward with the popularly backed reform agenda for the country. Consequently, they are no longer beguiled by false promises made by those who have shamelessly ‘kowtowed’ to every single whim of an unelected and degenerate theocracy, regardless of their own moral responsibilities to those helpless millions who had invested so much hope and trust in them.

Finally, a successful boycott of the upcoming Majles elections (unless the current restrictions on general participation are totally removed) will also provide the first real test for a large scale civil disobedience campaign to be held in post-revolutionary Iran. If managed successfully, the Islamic regime will forever be deprived of a major tool which it has so successfully employed in the past to project a deceptive sense of legitimacy abroad - namely, popular support from the overwhelming majority of voters through the election process.

The time has now arrived to put an end to this myth and all the charades that the Islamic Republic has conveniently employed to prolong its unnatural life by showing the Islamic dictatorship for what it truly is. Last summer, on July 9 - the day that commemorated the 1999 student uprising - ordinary Iranians had to venture out into the streets in order to register their protest and hatred of a political system that has ruined their prosperity and violated their human rights. This time by staying at home, they can achieve the same result by signalling to the entire world that they will never accept the fate that is being ordained for them by a cruel, greedy and barbarous clique of villains who have lost any claim they might have had to a popular mandate a long time ago."
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Referendum AFTER Regime Change

"I'm ready to die for you to be able to say your own opinions, even if i strongly disagree with you" (Voltaire)

[TeachESL]

This means "Good for them!!" I pray that they have the strength to bring down this regime. Instead of writing a song against the war in Iraq, Willie Nelson should have written a song about the people of Iran and their longing for freedom!

[redemption]

[TeachESL]

Well, I just sent him the link to this web site and asked him to write a song for the Iranian people!

[avery]

[Spenta]

Very good piece. I wish the New York Times had ran it, but then again who are we kidding, h.e.l.l. will freeze over before the New York Times runs a piece like this.

I only have one thing to add, that many people are not concerned about a low turnout resulting in a hardliner victory in the upcoming elections because they know the elections will be rigged to show a hardliner victory whether they vote or not. So, they don't want to legitmise the rigged hardliner victory.

[Guest]

[Guest]

[IranianPhenom]

[Khorshid]

Dear TeachESL

Thank you so very much. Please ignore "guest" and "IP" as it is their duty to keep others ignorant of the events occuring in Iran.

We have a saying in Persian, "Del be Del rah dare." It means that people's hearts and feelings are connected. And what better way to connect our hearts than through the international language of the arts.

Thank you again.


p.s. An excellent article by Mr. Khonsari.

[TeachESL]

Who knows if Willie Nelson will even respond; but I just had to let him know! By the way, this is a link to all the addresses of the media, plus 'political' addresses.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1005500/posts