Tuesday
February 22, 2000
Jumping the gun
It's true that recent events in Iran bring some sense of optimism, but
to say that "democracy has finally arrived", is in my humble
opinion premature and naive ["The
ballot box"].
While 1,500 students still are in prisons and the people who threw them
off the third floor of their dorms are running around free, while no one
has yet truly been implicated for the serial murders of 1998 with the exception
of some imaginary dude, Said Emami, while it was only weeks ago when we
had a German guy in prison for the crime of having sex with somebody, while
ancient allegations and rhetoric of CIA and FBI's relationships with Saeed
Emami and his wife can be publicly mentioned by government officials, while
those responsible for mass executions of thousands of Iranians and the
destruction of Iranian economy still walk around freely, it's hard to truly
speak about democracy.
Democracy's first rule, is a pluralistic government. Did anyone who
officially rejected the notion of Velayate Faghih participate in this election?
Did any party with the exception of those within the framework of Islamic
Republic participate in this election? does democracy in Iran mean working
within the frameworks of IRI? Isn't there anyone out there who could represent
thousands of Iranians who are not per se religious?
True, there is reason to be optimistic, but we Iranians have to start
having higher expectations. "Good enough" is not enough and
should not be enough for us. We have lived 2,500 years under the yoke
of various rulers from the monarchs who paid little attention to their
subjects to mollas who followed the same line with corruption and unparalleled
dictatorship.
Instead of making heroes out of ordinary people who are merely doing
their job, at most, we should expect more from our government, from our
officials, from our system. We DESERVE better and we must GET better.
As a nation, we have a daunting task ahead of us. We can not be satisfied
with half efforts, with just "Good enough"!
Only when we reach a day, when no one will be arrested and jailed for
their political beliefs, no one fears expressing their opinions, and every
government official starts feeling responsible for their actions, then
we have achieved democracy. Until then, we are merely working towards
it, at the very best.
Jafar D.
Links
