Teachers protest against Hashemi Rafsanjani

March 3, 2007 at 1:37 pm | Posted in Ahmadinejad, Basij, democracy, economy, Iran, Khatami, Media, Pasdaran, Rafsanjani | 4 Comments

Hundreds of teachers staged a sit-in demonstration in front of Majlis building today, in protest of the Assembly of Experts failure to address their demand for a pay increase. The teachers hold the Assembly of Experts Chairman, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, personally responsible.

It has been reported in the Western media that Hashemi Rafsanjani is in ascendancy and that President Ahmadinejad has become increasingly unpopular. In fact, the reverse is true, Ahmadinejad is more popular on the Street now, than he was when he gained 17 million votes in the 2005 presidential election, defeating Hashemi Rafsanjani. It is in the Majlis that Ahmadinejad is deeply unpopular – he always was – he represents neither the Conservative nor Reformist wings. He is Iran’s political outsider.

In the Western media, Iranian politics is reduced to Conservatism versus Reformism -or “Mullahs” versus “secularists”. Yet the reality is both are from the clerical classes and both support the Islamic revolution and the current Iranian model of Islamic democracy. Where Ahmadinejad differs to the Iranian political elite is that he is of the people and for the people. This in itself antagonises the clerical elite, however his rejection of oligarchy and his avocation of the redistribution of wealth, egalitarianism and ethical trade is an intolerable affront to that elite, which is represented by Hashemi Rafsanjani and Sayyed Mohammad Khatami. The alliance between the two is certainly a threat to Ahmadinejad and Iranian democracy.

However, it is utter nonsense that Iran’s current diplomatic confrontations with the West have been instigated or exacerbated by Ahmadinejad; it was Britain, under directions from the United States, that sabotaged the EU troika negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme, which incidentally the West believes to be a peaceful nuclear programme. The West willfully tried to torpedo the reformists and advance the presidential hopes of Hashemi Rafsanjani in the the belief that Hashemi Rafsanjani was a “pragmatist” (i.e. corruptible) and therefore was more susceptible to Western bribery.

This strategy failed as anyone with an once of intelligence and the slightest knowledge of Iranian politics ought to have foreseen. President Ahmadinejad was elected on domestic issues – the nuclear dispute was not a feature of the 2005 presidential elections. The current confrontation with the West plays to Ahmadinejad’s advantage. Iranians have seen a war with the United States and its clients states on the horizon since the invasion of Iraq: it does not unsettle them. To report the ascendancy of Hashemi Rafsanjani or forecast that he will succeed Ayatullah al-Uzma Sayyed Khamenei, as Supreme Leader, as many Western media outlets are doing, is once again, to misread Iranian politics. It is most improbable that the Assembly of Experts would entertain the idea of electing him Supreme Leader, since he does not have the support of the Street and could not command the loyalty of the Basij or Pasdaran.

President Ahmadinejad in the Lion’s Den

December 12, 2006 at 6:16 pm | Posted in Ahmadinejad, Basij, Iran, Khatami, Reformist | 1 Comment

When President Ahmadinejad gave a speech in Amir Kabir University, he was standing on what should have been hostile ground. The Amir Kabir University student’s association is heavily linked with the reformist movement, yet the reformist President Khatami received a hostile reception during his last speech there. His movement, would therefore have expected president Ahmadinejad to receive an even more hostile reception.

However this was not to be, much to the consternation of the reformist movement, there were only a few dozen protestors, with placards saying “Down with Dictators”, to which President Ahmadinejad responded, “Given the scars inflicted on the Iranian nation by agents of the US and British dictatorship, no one will ever dare to initiate the rise of a dictator.”

And when some students burned his photo he stated, “Everyone should know that Ahmadinejad is prepared to be burned in the path of defending freedom and truth.”

Commenting on the Western funding of anti-Iranian terrorist groups, president Ahmadinejad said:

“My response to the opponents of our ruling system is that the nation is aware of their tricks and will not be deceived by them. Iranians will never give up their ideals”.

His speech received a rapturous reception from most of the students, who began chanting his name.

The implications for the reformist movement cannot be overstated. Their hatred of Ahmadinejad is greater than their hatred of Rafsanjani. Yet even in Amir Kabir – what was their ideological heartland – there much touted demonstration amounted to less than 50 protestors. During the presidential elections the reformist had the bloggers; Ahmadinejad had the street. They underestimated then and they underestimated him now – the Basij Student Organisation is by far the most prominent student organisation in Iran. The reformist movement is dead.

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