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Iran: Reformists feel the
pinch
By N Janardhan
DUBAI -
Hopes for reform in the Middle East rose after September
11, but far from strengthening the hand of reformist
Iran's President Mohammed Khatami, events of the past
year have encouraged the conservatives' agenda. This has
triggered a political crisis in Iran, with wide social
consequences.
Iran is easily the best that
democracy has achieved so far in the Middle East. At the
same time, it is also the best example of how the
people's mandate is being held to ransom by the
religious forces, buoyed further by hawkish statements
from Washington in the last year.
US President
George W Bush's branding of Iran earlier this year as an
axis of evil, along with Iraq and North Korea, was a
setback, because the Khatami government had initiated
several measures at rapprochement with Washington, the
first after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. "The majority
of reformists believe that the US reaction against Iran
helped conservatives stall the reform project by
militarizing the atmosphere," said Khaseem Abu Khaled, a
Dubai-based political analyst, in an interview.
The US inclusion of Iran in the axis of evil
call may have been a fallout following the episode
involving the vessel Karine A. It was believed to have
originated from an Iranian coast, laden with more than
50 tonnes of weapons - ostensibly for the Palestinian
National Authority - and seized by Israel early this
year.
The Khatami government has also come under
suspicion by Washington for willingly or unwillingly
providing escape routes to the Taliban and al-Qaeda
forces, an allegation rejected by Tehran.
Iran's
president is elected directly by the people, though his
powers are limited compared to those of the supreme
leader and conservative Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is
chosen by the Assembly of Experts, itself composed of
elected clerics.
The conservatives, who control
the judiciary and the security forces, have blocked the
way for increased press freedom and human rights. In the
past two years, courts have imprisoned dozens of
opposition figures and journalists, shut down 22 daily
papers and reinstated public executions.
The
Guardians Council, which decides whether proposed laws
conform with Islam, is also a conservative bastion and
hinders reformist-led legislation, critics say.
Khatami's own frustration at the actions taken
against the reformists was clearly expressed in May when
he threatened to resign. "The 1979 revolution
represented our desire for an Islamic republic, not an
Islamic dictatorship, and it wanted all the components
of the regime to be based on the vote of the people," he
said.
"Khatami's five years at the helm have
shaken up the foundations of the Islamic regime, leaving
the political and economic reforms he promised virtually
a dead letter," said Dr Nasseb Al Saleh, professor of
political science at the UAE's Ajman University.
"Khatami, a cleric, presented himself as an open and
democratic religious man. He won the hearts of
Iranians," he added.
"But he is standing alone,
and the real power is still in the hands of the
conservatives. The US rhetoric against the Muslim world
and actions in Afghanistan after September 11 have made
it worse for him," said Al Saleh.
The Iranian
government plunged into its deepest political crisis
since 1979 following the shock resignation in July of
Khatami's friend and the prayer leader in Isfahan,
Ayatollah Jalaleddin Taheri, who said he was unable to
continue because of the "chaotic situation" in the
country.
Taheri's resignation came with a fiery
attack on the state and the clergy. His letter cited
"deception, unemployment, inflation, the diabolical gap
between the rich and poor, bribery, cheating, growing
drug consumption, the incompetence of authorities and
the failure of the political structure" of the
government as reasons for quitting.
Tehran has,
indeed, changed during the past five years and signs of
openness are much more common. Couples in parks hold
hands, while young women stroll freely with wearing
makeup and fashionable headscarves showing their hair.
But while the youth credit Khatami for the social
revolution, conservatives accuse him of undermining the
nation's fundamental Muslim principles.
Recently, the hard-line Revolutionary Guards
Corps fired off a warning to reformers, accusing them of
working to turn Iran into a secular state and of
building ties with Washington. "We have noticed a strong
tendency towards secularism, which wants to separate
Islam from government and weaken the guardianship of the
jurist [Khamenei]," the group said.
"The truth,
however," Saleh said in an interview, "is that given the
level of social unrest, the stricter the conservatives
get, the more people want their freedom, and more
chances of the explosion that everyone is fearing. If
they don't make room for the people, then the people
will begin to decide where the limits are."
In
late August, the reformist Iran News said in an
editorial, "If the government is unable or unwilling to
respond to the calls of the third generation for change
such as social, political, and economic reform, there
may be cataclysmic consequences for the country,"
referring to those born after the revolution.
In
the latest political battle, the government has thrown
down the gauntlet to conservatives with a direct assault
on their powers to scrutinize candidates for parliament.
The move is being seen as a rehearsal for the further
constitutional reform that Khatami is seeking. The
reform bill, which looks likely to be introduced in
parliament in a month, would sharply increase the
moderates' powers.
The proposed law would
sharply reduce the powers of the conservative-controlled
Guardians Council, which pronounces on candidates'
fitness for elections, to a "supervisory role". The body
has taken out reformist candidates in municipal,
parliamentary and presidential polls in previous
elections. "The president of the republic ought to be
able to act with more power, and 100 percent within the
framework of the constitution," Khatami said. "Because
of that, I will soon present to parliament a bill to be
able to act with more prerogatives, in order to better
respond to the aspirations of the people."
(Inter Press Service)
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