KHATAMI: THE BEAUTICIAN OF THE UGLY ISLAMIC REPUBLIC, MUST STAY OR GO?
By Mehdi Qasemi*
In the second installment of articles about whether President Khatami should stay in power or leave, Iran Press Service presents the view of Dr. Mehdi Qasemi, regular columnist of Nimrooz, the London-based weekly Persian language newspaper, the largest circulation of all Iranian publications outside Iran.
The first article, written by Hakim Haq-Nazar, one of the best analysts of the complex and complicated Iranian political and social theatre, was published on 6 of January.
Here are excerpts of the article entitled "The Guidance Minister Also Toppled and published on the paper’s issue Nr 617":
"It is to the wise and the intelligent to accept, and may be they have, that after the last blow he was dealt with the toppling of his Minister of Islamic Guidance, the coin of Mr. Mohammad Khatami has revealed to be a faked one. Henceforth, he has to chose between one of the two options left: Kissing good-bye to politics and leave, or stay on, acting as a tool in the hands of his rivals, continue to cut down, with the help of same nice phrases, the walls of the regime’s isolation, the only thing he has done successfully in the last three and six months".
In his vitriolic criticism of Mr. Khatami’s sycophants who do not want to accept the fact that the conservatives have trashed their idol into "a lion without teeth, tail, and mane", Mr. Qasemi also begin with the recent story of a friend, a Khatami admirer, who jolts the commentator because of his criticism of Mr. Khatami instead the "gang of the talebans".
"My interlocutor was trying to persuade me that if Mr. Khatami is dragged out of the arena, it would be occupied by the "herd of cannibals", therefore, the best thing to do is to oppose them, not the nice Mr. Khatami.
"I told him that those who say one must not treat Mr. Khatami the same as the Rafsanjanis, Khameneh'is, Jannatis, Mesbah-Yazdis and alike, must starts by asking themselves what the freedom would gain in case Mr. Khatami is out of the scene?
Then I reminded him that from for a longtime I was warning Mr. Khatami against adopting a policy of compromise and behind the scene give and take, the policy of handling both the goat and the cabbage and turning one’s back to the men who have voted for you, a policy that would fatally result on losing on both sides, battered by the enemy without having the protection of the people".
In the view of Mr. Qasemi, the "other side" is making Khatami "a good servant for his own shop" and if he is titillated time to time, it is to hang a Damocles Sword over his head, to remember him that "his elephant must not think of India", for, "not only Mr. Khatami is not a danger for the monopolist side, but has turned into a good asset with "fairy tales" such as "Dialogue Among Civilisations", "Civil Society", "Differences in Interpretations", "tales that not only have allowed walls of international isolation be removed, but also have wide opened the doors of the nation’s oil resources to international plunderers and helped western countries to deliberately ignore systematic violations of human rights in Iran".
The columnist then urges his critics to be "honest" with themselves, have the courage to explain to the people what are the results of three years and six months in office and songs of reforms, if not plunging the people in confusions of the see saw of compromises and futile theoricisations.
"All the pride of your so-called reformist group that has twisted the meaning of reform by putting it in the mold of empty phrases and meaningless expressions is limited to the few publications that were the result of sacrifices and hard work of some honest men who are now perishing in different prisons, publications in which not only Mr. Khatami had no role in their creation, but when they were locked one after another, one did not heard a word of protest from the dear Mr. Khatami, but to take the side of the oppressor instead of the oppressed. Was not he who shouted why one has to give trouble to our dear leader and harm the principle of leadership?".
"Of this group that insist on the futile assertion that if Mr. Khatami is out, there would remain no breathing space, one must ask:
Is any space remained where one can breathe?
Have you no eyes to see what happens in the horrible prisons. That in the one side one is saving the regime from its deadly shortcomings while on the other creates occasion for building one prison next to the other and in the din of "Dialogue among civilizations, freedom seekers and free men are more and more thrown into jails?
Have you no ears to hear the cries and implorations of the sons of the people crushed under torture in the valy faqih’s frightening dungeons?
What Mr. Khatami did when his dear minister of Islamic Guidance was toppled with one simple sign from the leader?
Was not the same dear Mr. Khatami who, during a students gathering, said, "….Today, talking about reforming the Constitution that is synonymous of changing the regime is betraying the Islamic system and the Iranian people"?
Was not the same dear Mr. Khatami who, in answer to a student who asked him what he has done for the "innocent prisoners", told him bluntly "on what responsibility, with which scientific document you claim there are innocent prisoners in prisons?
Was not the same dear Mr. Khatami who said there have never been differences of views between the heads of the three powers and if there were any, they were minors and solved friendly with the gracious advises of Mr. Rafsanjani and the supreme leader?
Which one of his confessions one must take for expressing the truth? This or the one where he says he has no power, that the President was not in a position to stop violation against the Constitution?
If this is not a plain lie and deliberate misleading, what is it then? You tell me!
Is, calling for reform in the system a sin, or treason, as the President has stated?
Is, demanding, only demanding, without reverting to any violent mean, for change in the Constitution, treason?
And the one who has dared to make such a demand liable for capital punishment?
Did torture, arbitrary imprisonments, murders and lawlessness ever stopped under the three years and six months of Mr. Khatami’s presidency? Did they stop sending to prison lawyers supposed to defend people slain by agents of the regime. Did Kangaroo courts stopped violating laws, jailing journalists, closing publications?
And what happened to the Majles, that House that was filled with so-called reformers by courageous voters?
Did it not slipped in the hole like a mouse with the first thunder of the leader?
Do you, frankly speaking, believe that Mr. Khatami tells the truth when he confessed to his impotency?
I don’t. Would he be sincere, he would, instead of swimming in a sea of contradictions, spoke to the people, tell them the realities and ask for help!
What seriously would happen if he had done so?
They would depose him?
Is he not already?
And in answer to all the above questions, Mr. Qasemi say in his view, the Khameneh’is and the Rafsanjanis and all the alkies would never lose such a "jewel" they have in their hand. "For, if Mr. Khatami has brought nothing for the people, but with cosmetics like the empty reform promises and philosophic gestures, he was able to clean the path for plunderers, the talebans of the regime, bringing witness to his double ignorance. ENDS KHATAMI STAY OR GO? 22101
* A career journalist, Mr. Qasemi was a senior commentator of the Iranian Radio under the former regime.