After Khatami

AFTER KHATAMI …

http://ghandchi.com/95-AfterKhatami.htm

It does not really take a rocket scientist to see what Khatami’s role in Iran is. Basically Khatami’s government has been the execution of the fundamentalists’ policies in every aspect of Iranian life ranging from economic plans to foreign policies, from military operations to social practices. Cornerstone of Khatami’s personal charm has been to keep a very good relationship with the ones who really exercise power in Iran with Ayatollah Khamenei, the VF (Vali-e Faghih), at the top, and this has been to the point that they even made Khatami their favored candidate in the second election where Khatami was elected.

VF (Vali-e Faghih) assigns the judiciary and chief of police and military and Khatami can tell people that all the oppression of the regime is by those organs, which do not report to Khatami. He has the image of head of state while thanks to this structure he can easily excuse himself on all that happens to Iran and Iranian people and can keep the image of the nice guy being a decorative president. In a way, Khatami is the king and Khamenei (VF) is the prime minister if this was a constitutional monarchy.

One should be a fool to work for Khatami. It would remind one of the Iranian idiom of not going in the well with an untrustworthy guy holding the rope. It is obvious that he will let the rope go the moment the going gets tough. That is what he has done with many of his supporters who have ended up dead or in jail. In a way, it is better to deal with VF and the others who run the Iranian state, whether one intends to oppose the regime or to work with the regime. And this reality is becoming more and more clear in Iran and abroad, as Khatami is becoming a thing of the past.

The Iranian progressive forces should start organizing themselves into parties and groups that can effectively lead Iran beyond Khatami and Islamic Republic as the time is getting closer and closer that the choice will be between the ones who are in reality running the Iran’s Islamic Republic and their strategy and tactics in Iran and abroad, and the ones who want to build a future_oriented secular democratic republic in Iran.

Sam Ghandchi, Publisher

IRANSCOPE

http://www.IRANSCOPE.com

Dec 22, 2001

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* The above article was first posted on Jebhe BB on Dec 22, 2001