What would you do if you had become a candidate for representing people of your nation's capital in parliament and people choose not to vote for you and you loose the ballot? Would there be any slight possibility for you to even think of winning a presidential election some years later without any change in your attitude, interests, priorities and way of life? This is a crazy world and I should tell you, if you were in Iran and your name was "Rafsanjani", you would even think of yourself as the only possible savior of the whole nation even after such crash in popularity! And would consider people as those who would overwhelmingly vote for you. Nicknamed as Iran's second power, he is even thought to be more powerful than the supreme leader and among common people, his name is a synonymous for someone who owns most of the valuable things in the country, man of extravagant luxury and someone who's family are in charge of anything profitable who keep their hidden money in Swiss bank. Being one of the ever lasting conservative figures of the country, Rafsanjani has been in the most critical positions of Iranian government since 1979 and it is really a negative point in my view for Islamic regime that with millions of capable young talents, should still look back to it's old folks and one of the reasons is that according to this system, not many and let's better say only a few people are actually allowed to grow high in the government hierarchy no matter what the majority of people think!
One unfortunate thing I feel about the next presidential election is that people are so alerted about these pressure from outside especially over this nuclear issue and are desperate for someone who can resolve this clash with westerners especially someone who can ease up relations with US. This fear from outside is helping the Islamic government of Iran to fool the mob and make "voting" a duty for national protection and hide the flaws of the way the right for free election is suppressed in the process. Those who back Rafsanjani say that it is only him who can beat radical conservatives of Iran and make a wise decision in this regard. But I doubt if his actions can bring any positive progress and just because he opened the economy to Europeans (who are happily concurring our market with unfair deals as US sanctions left them with no competitors) does not mean he is in favor of the nation. His ignorance towards human rights and increase in national debt and inflation are just examples of his bringing to our people in the past.
P.S: Brooding Persian has a nice account about those who applied as candidates in the first day of registration. Omid Memarian who is a progressive journalist has put his speculations about real rivals of this election.
Your statement, "Europeans (who are happily concurring our market with unfair deals as US sanctions left them with no competitors)," is interesting. Are you trying to say that Europeans are overwhelming the Iranian market and that's why the Iranian-industries are failing because they can't compete with European quaities? But then, if US enters the Iranian market, same thing would happen. So, could you please elaborate the meaning of your statement?
I might be wrong but from various Iranian blogs, I've noticed the fact that Iranians tend to dislike/not favor any country that is working with the current Iranian regime. Is that true? And, perhaps that's the reasons why Iranians tend to favor/like America because America doesn't work with the current Iranian government? Could this also be the reasons why Iranians hate India in general? (I've read, sometimes, the degrading/funny ways India/Indians are refered to. I thought those were isolated incidents. But then I've talked about this issue with my various Iranian friends and they've told that Indians are generally hated in Iran :-(?. Or maybe because we are from a poor 3rd world country with dark complexion in general, not as fair as Iranians :-(?).
I read the Brooding Persian article yesterday. The initial process - everybody being allowed to register to run for the election - is a truly democratic process. But, then democracy goes away when candidates are selected from them by the Guardian council. I don't understand why they've to do that. Because if they apply a little brain they will realize that many of those candidates will automatically be kicked out by the Iranian public. For example, an 18 year old girl filled up the registration. I don't think she has any chance of getting elected :-). And in any case, whoever is elected doesn't matter because all the power will ultimately lie with the Council (that's what it appears to me). So, why do they go to that extra trouble of selecting candidates from all those who registered? I guess they are scared of people like Shirin Ebadi or those famous bloggers or some editors from some famous reformists newspapers (example Shargh). Regarding this, there was a documentary shown on PBS (an American channel which is very liberal and usually shows everything from every angle). You can go to their website: pbs.org for various important news/articles/information. Also, go to this site: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/iran/ and you can watch the whole video that was shown on the American TV. Two of the most famous programs of PBS which deals with international/natioanl politics are Wideangle and Frontline. And, PBS usually puts the whole video of those progrmas on the internet.
Posted by: KL | May 13, 2005 at 01:05 AM