Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in Qom today attending a clergy gathering at Qom’s Theological School (Hozeh Elmieh). Addressing the gathering, he announced that he and his cabinet have thus far been accused of 40,000 lies about misappropriation of government funds and mismanagement. Forty thousand is a very big number. Could it be true? This side of the Iranian border, people who keep praising and defending Ahmadinejad as a suitable and successful president for Iran always hold that people inside Iran just love the man! Well, if he is so well-loved, who has been coming up with 40,000 lies against him?
And this from a man who has lied all the way from his elections campaign through today, promising to end poverty, corruption, and discrimination in Iran. He had promised to “bring the oil revenue to people’s table.” He had claimed that he had no interest in cracking down on the mostly young population of Iran over the state of their hejab and physical appearance. He had promised to expose the “financial/economic mafia” of Iran, and to put an end to the rich getting richer everyday at the expense of Iran’s increasing population who live under poverty lines. He had promised his government to be one of kindness (mehr varzi), but during his reign students who demonstrated against him and his policies have been systematically punished and persecuted, Iran’s Bahai minority has experienced the most cruel treatments of the past 30 years, and Iran’s human rights record has reached an all-time low with increasing numbers of executions, imprisonments, and harsh sentences for civil rights activists. During his term Iran has suffered its most rapid deterioration of reputation and credibility as a peaceful country, feeding the media frenzy which has left Iran and Iranians demonized and dehumanized, increasing the probability of military action against it.
Lies? 40,000 of them? How about the few that he told the 70,000,000 people of Iran? I think Mr. Ahmadinejad’s latest complaints are really not acceptable. Furthermore, his own admission to all the criticism should be sufficient in convincing his supporters outside of Iran that they might be alone in defending a man whose defense is such a great feat, it has been left to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, to see Mr. Ahmadinejad through the next presidential election.
Photo from Fars News Agency.
Read: http://www.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8710050735
http://www.roozonline.com/archives/2008/12/post_10731.php, and
http://www.radiofarda.com/Article/2008/12/25/o2_ahamdinejad_qom_criticizes.html
