Deal collapses to reinstate banned candidates in Iran
It has gotten to the point where it is impossible to accomplish political reform within the system. The fate of the country will be either dictatorship or collapse, although they (the clerics) should remember that the outcome of a dictatorship is also collapse.
- Fatemeh Hagighatjou
Those of y'all who came of age in the '70s (yes, '70s WERE more than just a bad TV show...) no doubt remember the Iranian hostage crisis, 444 days of sheer unadulterated Hell. A group of wild-eyed fanatics had this country by the short hairs, they knew, and they passed up no opportunity to maximize the embarrassment. Yes, it ended 23 years ago, but the repercussions still linger, both for Americans and the Iranian people.
Iranians, many of whom hailed the Islamic Revolution of 1979 as the harbinger of better things to come, are today still dealing with the harsh realities of life under a corrupt and unjust "Islamic" government. Realistically, the only thing legitimately "Islamic" about the current government in Tehran is that the mullahs are still using Islam to justify their corrupt and brutal grip on power.
TEHRAN, Iran - Leaders of Iran's reformist Parliament conceded defeat to the country's ruling clerics Thursday and predicted that this month's elections would go forward with a sweeping ban on liberal candidates in place.
The ban clears the way for conservative clerics to retake the Parliament and end legislative efforts to secularize the Islamic republic.
The reformers' admission of defeat came on the final day of a sit-in by incumbents to protest the mass blacklisting of candidates for the elections Feb. 20....
The unelected Guardian Council rejected a last-minute deal brokered by President Mohammad Khatami that would have reinstated a quarter of the banned candidates despite the apparent approval of the deal by Iran's most powerful ruling cleric. The council agreed to reinstate only 51 of the 600 names that Khatami's Intelligence Ministry had forwarded for vetting.
While the council usually follows Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's lead, it can ignore a decree meant only as "guidance," the lawmakers said. The outcome suggests that Khamenei's support for the compromise deal was halfhearted at best.
Really, what interest does it serve for Khamenei to support liberalization? With every stricture that is eased, the hardliners lose a bit of their iron grip on political power and the benefits that accrue from that power. They can talk a good ball game, but no one should realistically expect the current regime to provide anything but lipservice to the concept of liberalization.
And guess what, y'all...we're still THE GREAT SATAN!! This, of course, seems to provide reason enough for the current regime, and even some reformers, to thwart anything resembling democratic reform.
Even now, few reform politicians advocate changing Iran's political system, in which unelected clerics hold supreme power and can overrule the president and Parliament. The reformers have virtually ignored demands for a referendum on the constitution by many younger Iranians, for fear of altogether eliminating an Islamic republic established by revolution 25 years ago.
That hesitancy played into the hands of the hard-liners, who used public disillusionment with the reformers as an opportunity to silence their movement.
Khamenei's speech Dec. 16 on the U.S. capture of Saddam Hussein set the tone. In an apparent reference to Khatami's government, he alluded to a need to remove people from power who were thinking about improving relations with the United States.
Ultimately, of course, the responsibility for the political affairs and fate of Iran rests with Iranians. With the atmosphere of repression being what it is, though, making changes from within can prove to be a difficult and dangerous proposition. This is where we can make a difference. By shining enough light on the cockroaches that continue to use Islam to prop up their corrupt and illegitimate regime, perhaps in time we can force them to scatter. The people of Iran deserve to have the right to choose for themselves how their country will be governed. As things stand right now, they have no opportunity to express themselves.
How can we begin to make a difference? Well, you can join up with these folks:
True, we may not make a difference in the short run. Even so, a corrupt regime can hardly prosper nor long survive when the people being oppressed are presented with a viable alternative.
You can also support the folks who put together this campaign by doing something quintessentially American: Buy Some Stuff!!
Can we make a difference? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We'll never know until we make the effort now, will we?
