Friday, June 19, 2009
News Don't Panic: Was Iran’s recent presidential election fixed?
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Iranians have got a lot going on.
A typical day for an Iranian consists of: waking up; being oppressed by a fanatical, corrupt, incompetent regime; going to work (if they’re lucky enough to have a job); getting oppressed; spending time with family; running some errands; enjoying an “Ugly Betty” rerun; and maybe some more oppression before bed.
On June 12, the nation collectively carved time out of this hectic schedule to cast votes in a presidential election.
Don’t be mistaken: Iran is not a democracy. It’s a theocracy with many democratic characteristics.
The country’s real ruler is “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He runs an unelected religious gang called the Guardian Council. They’re the government’s highest decision-making body. Among the Guardian Council’s powers: choosing who is allowed to run for public office.
It’s as if a committee consisting of a priest, a rabbi, a Protestant minister, an imam and David Copperfield had the power to strike U.S. political candidates from any ballot.
In other words, Iran’s election was fixed before the ballots were even printed. Fixed. Broken. Same thing.
But that’s not to say Iran’s elections are meaningless. As long as no one questions the primacy of the hats-n-beards on the Guardian Council, Iran actually allows free-ish political debate. Iran’s public political discourse is significantly more open than in the other large thugocracies of the Muslim Middle East, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (both of which are U.S. allies, by the way).
Massive pre-election rallies, as well as very long lines at polling places, strongly suggest the Iranian public is in the mood for change.
Any change will do at this point: change they need, change they can believe in, regime change, whatever. At this point, I’m sure a lot of them would settle for change for a dollar.
Why are so many Iranians eager to turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes?
Because by any objective measure, their current government is a disaster.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won office in 2005 by promising to improve the economy — and because the country’s moderate and liberal voters stayed home.
In the interim, Iran’s economy has gotten worse. The nation cannot keep up with the fast-growing population’s selfish demands for luxury items, such as jobs or places to live.
Unemployment in Iran is officially at 10.5 percent, but it’s safe to assume a government that brutalizes peaceful pro-democracy protesters is probably comfortable faking Excel spreadsheets, too.
Another economic factor in popular unease is inflation. Officially, it’s at 25 percent.
It’s been so long since Americans have dealt with real inflation, it’s probably worth explaining what it does to people’s emotional well-being.
You know how the U.S. collectively freaks out when gas prices start to go up for no obvious reason?
Now, imagine if everything you bought — food, clothing, “Ugly Betty” Season Two DVD boxed sets — were subject to those unnerving price swings. That’s inflation.
Everything you need to know about Iran’s economic stagnation can be gleaned from a single economic factoid: Oil is responsible for 85 percent of Iran’s foreign earnings. The country’s No. 2 export, responsible for a whopping 4 percent of Iran’s export cash, is dried fruit and nuts.
Iran’s educated, literate and entrepreneurial population is hungry for a leader who’ll let them build a modern economy to fill the canyon between oil and pistachios.
They also want a president who doesn’t share Ahmadinejad’s proclivity for foam-mouthed nationalism and smug anti-Semitism. Iranians aren’t stupid. They know better than anyone that Ahmadinejad’s idiotic ramblings have drawn a bull’s eye on their country. Iranians want peace with the West, not war.
Adding an extra layer of insult to the considerable injury, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei have given free rein to armed bands of ultra-conservative religious enforcers who terrorize the population for committing grave offenses to decency like dressing comfortably, having dinner parties and dating.
Leading opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi isn’t an Iranian Nelson Mandela or a Lech Walesa. He’s not so much leading a revolt as he is skillfully surfing a wave of public displeasure.
Of course he won the election. Iran’s government wouldn’t have shut down the phone system and the Internet if their guy had gotten a majority.
The Iranian people spoke. They told Ahmadinejad and Khamenei to go away.
Comments (3)
Showing 1-3 of 3
So Ironic!!!To name a shallow person with zero insight ANDISHEH NOURAEE ! 'Andishe',in Farsi(persian), means thought,perception as a product of thinking and underestanding. And the last name comes from the word of 'nour' meaning (in Farsi and Arabic) light,illumination,shine.
like
dislike
So Ironic!!!To name a shallow person with zero insight as ANDISHEH NOURAEE ! 'Andishe',in Farsi(persian), means thought,perception as a product of thinking and underestanding. And the last name comes from the word of 'nour' meaning (in Farsi and Arabic) light,illumination,shine.
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
'Ex-gays' gather outside Atlanta this weekend 6
Meanwhile human rights groups fight the notion that "ex-gay" is a thing
-
CNN cancels Atlanta debate 3
Everybody cry
-
ARC's new map of transportation-tax projects is suitable for framing 6
Voters will decide 1-cent sales tax measure in July
- More »
Author Archives
-
What can we learn from the 9/11 anniversary? 37
Ten years later, a TV terrorpalooza rings hollow
- More »
