The Next Move

Ramin Parham, Iran-Shahr Blog:

History is the movement of the masses. What moves the masses and when, is History's best guarded mystery. In 1933, German masses moved behind the delusions of a certain Adolf. Within a few years, they all moved against Euro-Asia, west and east... READ MORE

In 1979, Iranian masses moved behind the psychotic believes of a dizzy old man, by the name of Ruhollah the "Soul of God", regarding the self and the world outside the self. Within a few months, masses in the entire region were moving against each other, moved, in their spirit and actions, by the psychotic delirium that had spewed out of the "Soul of God" and the Iranian masses.

26 years later, facts and figures are here, on the 1979 balance sheet, thick as sorrow, dark as shame.

Fact 1. Two days after the first round of the islamic presidential masquerade, reported worldwide as "competitive", "open", even "democratic" elections, Fars News Agency reports on the state of "islamic Iran": "Based on a variety of criteria and indices, including nutrition, housing, and clothing, the minimal number of Iranians living below the absolute poverty line is above 40% of the total population". In a later report, the same agency puts the line at US per person per month, or news.pl.9 US per day per person in metropolitan areas. The country, revealed a presidential candidate during his campaign, has earned hundreds of billions of dollars, since 1979, and, said the candidate, no one knows where and how that money has been spent. Well, at least, we now know where it hasn't been! Readers should keep in mind that the number given above, 40% of the population, relates to those living below the absolute poverty line. There are also those living slightly above and millions of others living in what is called by economists relative poverty.

Fact 2. "Iran's natural environment is destroyed for up to 4.8 billion US dollars each year, representing 7.4% of the annual GDP", says a prominent figure of the new islamic elite, Maasoomeh Ebtekar, an ex-hostage taker and now Head of the Environmental Organization in Iran. Iran ranks a bottom 136 in the latest analysis by Columbia University for Sustainable Environment worldwide.

Fact 3. 26 years after the "glorious revolution" that was to bring the "just government of Ali (first shia imam in 12-imam shi'ism)" on earth, Iranians are facing a choice as dark as the absence of any choice: Rafsanjani or Ahmadinejad, the "shark", the "Red Eminence" of 26 years of murders and "chain assassinations" or the "hit man" of the islamic Revolutionary Guards Special Unit!!

Fact 4. "Prominent Iranian intellectuals, artists, and journalists" are rallying behind the "shark" or the "red eminence" in what the French AFP has dubbed, in an astonishing lack of critical analysis and ... common sense, the "Iranian remake of the Chirac - Le Pen confrontation on April 21, 2002" !! 26 years ago, Iranian intellectuals rallied behind the "Soul of God", and now, behind the "red eminence" of Ruhollah's legacy, all in the name of "equality" and "liberty" !! As one of the "prominent intellectuals" has said, in a move to justify his rallying behind the master murderer, "this is no time for trial and error any more"! The "prominent intellectual" does not explain when "the trial" or "the error" was made. In 1979? Anytime thereafter?

Every political regime is the translation of a number of founding ideas. The founding ideas of the revolution and the regime it gave birth to could be summarized as:

1. Iran is islamic.

2. Iran is the enemy of Israel and the friend of Syria and Palestine and its destiny is tied to that of the "islamic world".

3. The islamic model in Iran is an alternative to western liberal democracy.

There will be nothing but shame and sorrow in Iran so long as a counter-revolution has not taken place. This would have to be built around the founding ideas that:

1. The Iranian identity of the country supersedes and supplants its islamic one.

2. Iran's best interests are served in a context of modernity and liberty in close cooperation with major western and regional democracies, in particular the US and Israel.

The recent rallying of Iran's "intellectuals" behind the "red eminence" of the murderous plundering of the country, Hashemi Rafsanjani, should remind us all that there is nothing to expect from those who have vested interests in the 1979 revolution and its outcome.

We must build our own forces and clearly present ourselves as who we are, what we stand for as a vision and a project for Iran, and who our leader is.

This alone would give the masses, tired and restless, the alternative that may ignite their next move.