Conservatists fear Conservatists

Iranian blogger, Omid Memarian, Rooz Online:

Emad Afrough, chairman of Majlis’ (Parliament) Cultural Committee called it a risk to confirm Pourmohammadi, president Ahmadinejad’s nominee as the Minister of the Interior. This is the government agency entrusted with providing peace and stability in Iran’s 28 provinces. It is also the administrative arm of Tehran in the countryside. “He comes from a place (meaning the Ministry of Intelligence) which has incidentally demonstrated weak internal supervision”, Afrough said, a reference to the Intelligence Ministry that eventually acknowledged responsibility within its ranks for murdering Iranian dissidents inside and outside the country just a few year ago. “Allow me to interpret this appointment as a message to convey fear, just as we had in the past,” he added alluding to the years of terror imposed by the Intelligence agency. While immaculately supporting president Ahmadinejad, deputy Afrough presented the most methodical and coherent criticism of the way the nominees were elected, the nominees themselves and their programs, has raised serious issues that will most likely remain contentious points for years to come. READ MORE

Afrough, a sociologist by education, listed ethnic groups, social movements, fundamental individual rights, urban movements and uprisings, and socio-political activities to be the issues facing the next Minister of the Interior, and he openly questioned Pourmohammadi’s qualifications and experience to constructively deal with them. Afrough knew that Pourmohammadi would be confirmed, yet he wished to distance himself from the problems that will lie ahead with such a choice.

The most important criticism that Afrough raised lay in the nominee’s record, who was the deputy Intelligence Minister in charge of domestic counter-intelligence operations. The deputy went even further and said the activities of those years (a polite way of saying the murders and killings), were indefensible and against human and divine rights. He even asked, “What has been done with the perpetrators of those murders?” He then reminded the listeners of judgment day saying even opposition figures did not deserve to be treated the way they were.

Of course Afrough is not alone in being concerned about the direction events are taking and the individuals who are again put in powerful positions. Others had been expressing similar concerns even before Khatami was elected president, when murder, killings, terrorism, bans, arrests, torture, etc were prevalent at the powerful agency that Pourmohammadi partly ran. But few officials have recently been publicly expressing such views. We know that Khatami had ruled out any public post for Pourmohammadi during his two presidential terms. Interestingly some altruists supporting president Ahmadinejad also have questioned the wisdom of having such tainted ministers in the cabinet. The nominees for the Ministries of Islamic Guidance and Intelligence too come from backgrounds very similar to Pourmohammadi’s with hands that have been soiled in blood.

“I cannot forget the way urban protests were dealt with in 1993 in Shiraz, Mashhad, and Mobarakeh, by slaughter and killings,” he warned. Pourmohammadi’s reminder and reference to urban protests is noteworthy because observers and sociologists have said that urban protests and street fighting will be the major theme in the current decade in Iran. During president Khatami’s term, Doctor Tajik, a presidential advisor, had warned of precisely this development that would lead to the collapse of social order.

The Ministry of the Interior requires a leader who listens and watches, rather than reacts. Pourmohammadi has been trained to react, not listen or encourage others to listen. His confirmation is a sign of danger.

Afrough openly asks how does Pourmohammadi plan to deal with the centrifugal tendencies and movements among Iranian ethnic groups that have been for generations suppressed by the center, i.e. Tehran. In some of the Iranian provinces these separatist movements have reached alarming proportions.

There have been two approaches to the problem of the ethnic groups living on the edges of the country. One has aimed at strengthening the frontier provinces and the improvement of the living conditions of their residents through strong provincial/local involvement, ie reliance on local participation. This is a long-term approach that builds cooperation and affinity. The other has been to strengthen the unifying elements of Iran through the development of these regions by the central government in Tehran.

During president Khatami’s era, a comprehensive study was done on this subject by Iranian sociologists which concluded that the needs of the inhabitants of the provinces, especially the Kurds, had to be met through local participation, respect for local values, etc. This report was never published and its guidelines were not implemented because of the security oriented focus of the politic

Another theme that Afrough raised was the effect of appointing security-oriented managers and officials to political posts. “We fear that individuals will be appointed as Governors General for the country’s 28 provinces who will look at the issues there with that perspective,” he warns. He even went as far as to say that president Ahmadinejad’s plans were revealed a strong security approach to issues.

Pourmohammadi’s defense and words only confirmed the “dearth of management literature” in him. He spoke of the obvious, without explaining his views. His reference to “good government” was erroneous as the term that has entered the global political literature in recent years is “good governance”. Ironically, he even openly said that he planned to use experienced security personnel in his department, ignoring the warnings that Afrough had raised or the crises into which the country was thrown into because of the over reach of the security and intelligence officials.

Afrough is himself a conservative deputy. And when one conservative deputy “fears” the coming of another conservative, one can easily guess what the fears of intellectuals, freedom lovers and human rights activists are.