[Mb-civic] FW: Amir Taheir: HOW LONG CAN HE [AHMADINEJAD] PEDAL?

[Golsorkhi]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Golsorkhi <grgolsorkhi at earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:17:44 -0500
To: Michael Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com>
Subject: FW: Amir Taheir: HOW LONG CAN HE [AHMADINEJAD] PEDAL?


------ Forwarded Message
From: Samii Shahla <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2005 10:55:56 -0500
Subject: Amir Taheir: HOW LONG CAN HE [AHMADINEJAD] PEDAL?



Begin forwarded message:
> 
>  
>  <http://www.arabnews.com/>
> The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily
> HOW LONG CAN HE [AHMADINEJAD] PEDAL?
> by Amir Taheri
> November 26, 2005
>  
> Is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad getting a rough deal from his rivals within
> the Khomeinist regime?Judging by the daily chorus of derision organized
> against him in Tehran the answer must be yes.Many mullas worried about
> Ahmadinejad's thinly disguised intention to drive them back to the mosques,
> are using their pulpits to pour invective on him. Last week they went as far
> as calling for his impeachment and removal from the presidency on unspecified
> charges. An Iranian website is even taking bets on Ahmadinejad being forced
> out within less than a year.The problem with Ahmadinejad's Khomeinist foes is
> that they do not quite know where to place him. For over a quarter of a
> century the mulla-businessmen who have dominated Iran since the Khomeinist
> seizure of power have had it easy against their opponents.Anyone who called
> for a free media and fair elections was branded as "an agent of Imperialism
> and Zionism." Those who called for social justice and a fairer deal for the
> poor were dismissed as "remnants of the bankrupt left".Those who wanted a
> mixture of Islam and Marxism were called "the munafeqin" (hypocrites) and
> agents of the fallen Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein. Those who talked of Iranian
> nationalism in the context of a plurimilennial history were branded as
> "monarchist enemies of the revolution". Finally, the extra-pious Muslims who
> expressed shock at the way the mullas were plundering the country were labeled
> "plotters against Islam."In many cases any of those labels could lead to death
> by execution. According to Amnesty International, the mullas have executed
> almost 100,000 of their political opponents since 1979. Hundreds of thousands
> more were sent to prison and almost five million driven into
> exile.Interestingly, much of the criticism made against the rule of the mullas
> by all those branded opponents of the regime has now become part of
> Ahmadinejad's official discourse. He is talking of "decades of corruption and
> repression" and promises to bring to book "all those who have robbed the
> people." Worse still, he is making it clear that the 1979 was not about having
> more but less individual freedom. He also exposes the so-called moderate
> mullas who talk of "religious democracy" as frauds out to deceive the Iranians
> and hoodwink the gullible Westerners.For mullas like Hashemi Rafsanjani and
> Muhammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad is the worst possible nightmare. For he is
> dismantling their business empires while exposing their so-called "moderate"
> discourse as a sham.These mullas cannot brand Ahmadinejad either as a
> monarchist or a nostalgic leftist. Nor can he be charged with collaboration
> with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war. To question his religious piety is also
> impossible while it is now clear that Ahmadinejad is better versed in the
> Qur'an and the Hadith (sayings and traditions attributed to the Prophet
> Muhammad) than most mullas.The Rafsanjani-Khatami faction cannot question
> Ahmadinejad's revolutionary credentials. For, he is much more a child of the
> revolution than they.He has no pre-revolutionary past to speak of while the
> mullas who oppose him al had interesting business, political or bureaucratic
> careers before Khomeini's seizure of power.In a recent visit and in an
> informal chat with citizens in Khorassan, Ahmadinejad reminded everyone that
> the 1979 events that led to the seizure of power by Khomeini had been "a
> revolution, not a garden party.Ahmadinejad knows that a revolution is like a
> bicycle: It keeps you up and going as long as you keep pedaling. Stop pedaling
> and you are sure to fall head on.And a revolution, which certainly is not like
> a garden party, needs enemies to divest of privilege, to drive into exile, to
> imprison and, whenever necessary, to massacre. A revolution needs fifth
> columnists to kill and foreign foes to face. It must incite followers of one
> faith against those of another, and prosecute those who subscribe to an
> ideology in the name of another ideology. A revolution must incite the poor
> against the rich and the common folk against privileged elites. The symbol of
> the revolution is the guillotine.Thus if the Rafsanjani-Khatami faction
> consider themselves to be revolutionaries they must rally to the banner of
> Ahmadinejad's "second revolutionary wave." But if they believe that the
> Khomeinist revolution, though a historic fact, was a tragic mistake, they
> should say so and join those who want the revolutionary episode in ran to come
> to a definitive close. A revolution cannot be reformed for reform and
> revolution are as far apart as fire and water. But a revolution can be brought
> to an end, as history has shown on countless occasions, including in such
> afflicted countries as France and Russia.Are mullas like Rafsanjani and
> Khatami trying to deliberately misunderstand the Ahmadinejad
> phenomenon?Sometimes they describe the new president as "nothing but a pawn"
> in the hands of occult groups and organizations such as the Hojatieh (the
> followers of the Hidden Imam) or the Usulyoun (The Fundamentalists). They
> claim that he not only has no policy but is not even capable of knowing what
> policy is. At other times, however, the same pawn is described as "a dangerous
> dictator" as if the Islamic Republic ahs not been a dictatorship all
> along.None of those labels, however, seem credible. Ahmadinejad has started a
> massive purge of all levels of the state apparatus and the public sector of
> the economy. Hundreds of officials and businessmen who belong to the
> Rafsanjani-Khatami faction have been purged and legal proceedings are
> impending against scores of them on charges of embezzlement and misuse of
> public funds. Ahmadinejad has also imposed his style on virtually all public
> servants. Clearly, he is nobody's pawn.But is he a dictator? It is too early
> to tell. But what is certain is that he has not done what Rafsanjani and
> Khatami did during their presidency; the two mullas between them held the
> presidency for 16 years. During Khatami's eight-year stint as president over
> 300 newspaper, magazines and other journals were closed down and over 3000
> journalists, intellectuals and university teachers imprisoned for varying
> lengths of time. Khatami also established a black list of Iranian and foreign
> authors that contained more than 4000 names. The list of works banned,
> including some by a number of Iran's greatest classical poets, was even
> longer.Ahmadinejad, however, has not closed down any newspapers, at least not
> yet. Nor has he ordered the arrest of any journalist or academic ‹ again at
> least not yet.He may well turn out to be the dictator that his rivals claim he
> is. And he may even prove to be a crypto-fascist with a religious veneer, as
> even some of his friends fear.All he has done is to trigger a tremor at the
> heart of the new ruling class that has taken shape in the past quarter of a
> century. He has cancelled some big contracts awarded to South Korean, Chinese,
> Malaysian, Turkish and Austrian companies represented in the Iranian market by
> members of the Rafsanjani-Khatami faction. He has, as already noted, also
> booted out hundreds of cronies and provoked much excitement among Iran's
> poorest masses.In other words, he is trying to keep the creaking bicycle going
> by pedaling as hard as he can. The question is how long he can pedal.
>  
> 



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