Intro to Discussion About Proposed Future Constitution
http://www.ghandchi.com/283-Const.htm
Persian Version
http://www.ghandchi.com/290-Constitution-plus.htm
The following are my introductory notes on Oct 30, 2003 on Jebhe BB Thread about the future constitution model proposed by Mr. Ardeshir Dolat.
Dear Friends,
The following is the link to a proposed constitution model for democratic
republic of Iran written by Mr. Ardeshir Dolat. I posted this document once
before and only one comment was posted in response:
http://iona.ghandchi.com/ConstitutionModel.pdf
This is a very serious discussion and I hope that those who do not see it of any
value just ignore this thread rather than distracting this important discussion.
I think this is a great effort that Mr. Dolat has done and I will try my best to
participate in this discussion. I am glad that Mr. Dolat has also accepted my
request to visit this board for this discussion.
Here are some of my comments to start:
1. On item#17, it says God has given life and thus nobody has a right to take
the life of another. I actually am against capital punishment too, but I would
write this same concept differently that "society has not given life so society
has no right to take it away". In other words, I see punishments like
imprisonment by society legitimate as actions to take away a *social right*,
whereas I do not see life and death as a *social* right for courts to decide on
behalf of society. Therefore I do not need to argue this point using God, which
has a variety of interpretations and can mean the
Islamic God, etc. So I do not see any need of mentioning God to call for
what this item calls for, which I agree with.
2. On Item#21. It says parties are allowed as long as they do not breach any of
the principles of constitution. What if a party breaches some principles of
constitution? Is it needed to have the criteria of breaching all principles? I
wonder if some principles should be singled out as unbreakable for a party to be
legal and other principles not to carry such weight? The way this item is
written now does not seem OK to me although I understand that if a party
supports killing mortads or stoning adulterers, it should not be allowed to run
for the state. I am not sure how to write this into the constitution in a proper
way.
3. On Item#40. It says state can invest in any sector of the economy. I would
like to emphasize on how to stop the state monopoly in various sectors
especially oil. The main problem in Iran is that state already can invest
anywhere it wants and laws to limit
state ownership in mass media and oil are very important to insure
democracy. Also I think beside private and state ownership, stock ownership and
national mutual funds need to be added. I have discussed some of those items in
the
proposed platform of the futurist party.
4. On item#53, it says majles can call for referendum on important national
issues with 2/3 of votes. I agree with this but I also would like to add another
procedure of calling for referenda by collecting signature petition of 3% of the
population, thus enabling the electorate directly to bring bills that may not
have been introduced by representatives.
5. On Item#65. It says the deputies and VPs of president to be from the
representatives of parliament. I am not sure if this is a good idea. This is in
a way contrary to separation of power. Nonetheless I can be wrong and I wait for
friends to tell me what is good about this. Maybe I will be convinced and I look
forward to discussing this item further.
6. On Items#85-91. I have an issue with all these items. It seems to me that
there is a parallel government called shorAhA? I am all for new ways of direct
participatory democracy like ballot initiatives, but having a parallel shorAhA
like Soviets, in practice has been like having two parliaments, with the latter
being a tool of communist party in Soviet Union, and in Iran as the tool of
Islamists in revolutionary committees. I know about anjomanhAyeh iiAlati va
velAyati of mashrootiat but for me they should translate to federal organs like
the one sees in the U.S., rather than making them into soviets. I think
federal structure is a useful redundancy to ensure checks and balances, but
Soviet style parallel structure is more of a party type parallel state like in
Baathi states and communist states, and has been adding more to dictatorship
than to democracy, contrary to the intention of those from Paris Commune to the
later communists, Islamists, and Baathists. Thus I think dropping shorA
(soviets) and adding
federalism is critical for a proper constitution.
7. On Item#122. I do not think one year draft (compulsory military) is needed.
Actually in this day and age the draft is a waste of money; and armies that are
based on draftees are useless. I think to the degree that any army is needed, it
should use cadre staff, and the draft should be completely abolished. And the
military should focus more on professionalism and high tech rather than
draftees, which made sense at the time of 1789 French Revolution and Napoleon,
but today is just a drain on the state, unless one like the mollahs uses it to
milk the people by asking them to buy (sic) their draft .
8. On item#130. It is a good idea to require political parties to give their
laws to the state to determine if they are against democratic principles or not,
to be allowed to organize or not, but what if they are ambiguous about their own
principles, like some mellimazhabi parties, where they just call themselves
followers of God. Also who is the authority to make this decision to allow
them to organize or to ban them? Is vezArate keshvar (dept of Interior), like it
is in IRI, the right authority to make that decision, or courts should do it?
9. Finally I think a lot needs to be added regarding the judicial branch which
has always been usurped by mollahs in Iran and how the constitution can protect
the country from the continued role of those who have positions in
religious organization of Shi'a while also taking hold of judicial branch.
My thanks to Ardeshir Dolat for putting together such a great work.
Sam Ghandchi, Publisher/Editor
IRANSCOPE
http://www.iranscope.com
Oct 30, 2003
RELATED ARTICLES
http://www.ghandchi.com/index-Page15.html
P.S. Dr. Masoud Kazemzadeh's Note in response to above intro:
http://iranscope.ghandchi.com/Anthology/Kazemzadeh/constitution.htm