DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY IN ISLAMIC REPUBLIC

By Parviz Dastmalchi*

BERLIN 31^STAug. (IPS) The prerequisite for the establishment of democracy, that is the rule by the people or by representatives of the people over the people (direct or indirect) is the acceptance of the principle of national sovereignty.

Accepting national sovereignty, in turn, demands accepting of the principle that power resides in the nation, which means the totality of individual citizens, irrespective of race, religion, belief, gender, occupation, etc. This equality of all citizens before the laws is a necessary condition for the removal of any legal basis for inequality and discrimination.

In the past, national power consisted of a single, unified body. With the passage of time and with the growth of human beings and societies and the development of the mode of governments, political systems came to be divided into three essential branches of powers. The aim of dividing the powers was to exercise national sovereignty more effectively on the one hand and to impose controls on the rulers, on the other. The three branches of democratic government consists of the Legislative, which prepares and approves laws on behalf of the nation, the Judiciary, which makes judgements in accordance with those laws and the Executive which is charged with the administration of laws.

In the Islamic Republic system of Iran however, national sovereignty does not exist. Instead, "sovereignty and divine laws" reside uniquely in God. Depriving a nation of its rights to sovereignty and making it "godly" means withdrawing a nation its right to self-determination. In this case, the branches of government derive their power not from the people, but from God.

It should be said here that, even within the framework of this "godly sovereignty and divine law", human beings are not deemed to be equal, as, in the Islamic regime prevailing in Iran, many of the religious fundaments of the system have noting to do with either non-Muslim Iranians or with Muslim Iranians who are Sunni or who are Shi'ite of any denomination other than the Twelvers who subscribe to the idea of rule by a supreme jurisconsult or valye faqih, a phenomenon that is not unprecedented in history since, in the Middle Age, the Church had instituted a similar system in Europe and subsequently, suffered a great defeat, with the same thing about to happen in Iran. It is only a question of time.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, sovereignty is not elective. During the absence of the Shi'ites 12^th imam, leadership is exercised by a "just jurisconsult". In the first instance, the just jurisconsult selects the members of the Assembly of Experts who, after this selection, are elected by the people. However, the candidates must all be theologians subscribing to the principle of rule by a supreme jurisconsult, be of the Twelver branch of Shi'ism and finally be cleared by the Council of Guardians.

The Assembly of Experts then selects a jurisconsult as supreme leader, or guide for an indeterminate period. The leader has direct or indirect control over virtually all the system's institutions.

Nevertheless, this system is called an Islamic Republic. The word "republic" denotes that power is in the hand of the people. And the people elect the Islamic Consultative Assembly, or Majles.

However: 1) The Majles is Islamic, that is, it discriminates against all citizens who are not Muslims, with the exception of a few that represents the officially accepted religious minorities, that are the Jews, the Zoroastrians and the Christians, but not the Baha'i; 2) Candidates for the Majles must be vetted by the Council of the Guardians; 3) Legislation can take place only within the framework of Islam; 4) All laws, be they cultural, political or economic, must be based on Islamic criteria; 5) All laws must be endorsed by the council of Guardians; 6) The Majles lacks all legal standing in the absence of the council of Guardians; This Council consists of six clerical members appointed by the leader and six Muslim jurists appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council.

In the Executive branch, the president is elected directly by the people. But he is the next highest official of the country after the leader. The Council of Guardians must also vet presidential candidates. However, the president does not possess the required rights and duties for exercising national sovereignty.

Hovering high above the people's choice is a complicated network of jurisconsult, Assembly of Experts, Council of the Guardians etc. all "electing" one another through an intricate process, and nearly all consisting of theologians adhering to the system of rule by a supreme jurisconsult.

The Judiciary, too, arises from undemocratic and unelected roots. The head of the Judiciary is appointed by the leader and must be a theologian. The head of the Judiciary appoints the president of the Supreme Court and the State prosecutor, who must also be theologians. And the entire system of administering justice operates solely on the basis of Islamic criteria and sources, and judges are under strict instruction not to carry out any administrative order that contravenes Islam. Judges themselves are chosen in accordance with Islamic guidelines.

In the system of the Islamic Republic, national sovereignty has been fundamentally wrested away from the people. The source of the law is not the nation but something beyond it. Here, government is not an exercise in national self-determination, but something that is done in accordance with pre-determined divine laws, by rulers who sees themselves as the representatives, not of the nation and the people, but of God. ENDS DASTMALCHI ON IRI 30899

Mr. Parviz Dastmalchi is probably one of the most prominent Iranian experts on both the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its terrorist methods and killing machines.

He escaped death one night of September 1992 when gunmen opened fire on a party of Iranians in a Berlin restaurant named Mykonos, killing four Kurdish leaders, including Mr. Sadeq Sharafkandi, the general secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.

Since then, he devoted his time to help the German Judiciary in identifiying, capturing and condemning the criminals, Iranians and Lebanese terrorists acting on order from the highest religious authorities of the Islamic Republic, including its leader and the then president, as a Berlin High Court that was instructing the assassination case did found out.

Mr. Dastmalchi contributed this article to Iran Press Service.