Now that the recent election in the US is over with, there is another important election on the horizon. Namely the election of the next President of Iran.
Once again this coming June 12th (oddly enough George Bush Sr’s birthday), Iranians are forced to once again contemplate their unwinnable dilemma of staying away from the polls, or voting. Staying away seems unpatriotic. But voting means having to pick the lesser of 2 equally evil choices, courtesy of the all knowing and all seeing and all self involving theocratic dictatorship that really runs all of Iran’s affairs from behind those scantily see-through skirts of the mollahs.
In the last election, Ahmadinejad played his hand perfectly, fooling everyone into thinking he was a simple civil engineer, and therefore a reformer. In one campaign interview on TV, he said, “What business is it of the government to control what music people listen to, or what kinds of clothes people should wear?”, implying he was going to get the government out of the morality business, and grant young Iranians, their God-given youth for a change. That and it suggested the briefest glimmer of freedom on the heels of a less then disappointing Khatami.
His opponent was none other than the revolution’s original veteran mollah, and past president, Rafsanjani. His thinly veiled attempt at a coup, was more transparent than the latest design of mollah-wear, and the establishment wasn’t being fooled for a minute. Rafsanjani had also in the past, consequently and quite clearly stated that if he ever got nuclear weapons, he would most certainly fire them at Israel. And so he funneled the substantial personal fortune he had been amassing through his family’s monopoly over the Iranian pistachio market into his campaign. His wealth was now made even more substantial, thanks to Clinton’s relaxing of the US embargo, and which now allowed pistachios to be exported to the US once again. Pistachios have a huge global ingredient market, used in baked goods, and as flavorings and other industrial food uses. And Iran makes some of the purest pistachios on the planet. But of course.
And all of this, the poser, and once-was valet of Ayatollah Khamenei the supreme leader, who became the once-was former mayor of Tehran, now reinvented and repackaged himself as a secular reformer, and the Buddha smiling mollah with a heart as his opponent, they both masked the far bigger lie. A far far bigger lie.
Few people know of the great swindle of Iran’s constitution. Fewer than that, have actually read Iran’s original constitution. And fewer than that it seems, including Condoleezza Rice, have bothered to read Iran’s current constitution. No one other than Ganji apparently, has bothered to note the rather obvious changes in the constitution that funny enough, were put into place after Khomeini died. Changes that are now apparently sacrosanct. Cementedly horrifying sacrosanct.
The shocking changes to the constitution, have now firmly sealed Iran into a back alley of no return. The constitution cannot be amended or changed, because the previous constitutional amendment procedures which were pesky for the hardliners, were simply taken out. So it is illegal to change Iran’s constitution. The wide ranging powers granted to the guardian council, who are made up entirely of mollahs, are protected with this very big poison pill. The only way to change Iran’s constitution appears to be the unmentionable. And that is conveniently illegal too.
To counter Rafsanjani’s rook to bishop attempt to gain favor and influence with like minded guardian council members, and with the obvious ultimate aim of unseating Khamenei and gaining Rafsanjani’s own grip on the council, Khamenei put his substantial weight behind, and endorsed Ahmadinejad. Bishop takes rook, Ahamdinejad won the election. Checkmate. Rafsanjani, piss off to your pistachio farm.
After the election was over, the government officials that conducted the militia guarded election, counted the ballots, and surprise, surprise surprise, announced the glorious results. That an “overwhelming percentage” of Iranians had voted, adding that this percentage was coincidentally more than the percentage of US voters (So, Ha! Ha!), and that the results were undeniable. Almost holy in their divination of the next new shiny yet unshaven, scruffy, unwashed, and most importantly undeodorized, Iranian president.
Many people in Iran went to the polls just to get their Identification cards stamped. They placed their ballots in the box unmarked. It’s survival, and they don’t want to get hassled if their ID doesn’t show the right stamps in it. Many people who did not go to vote, said privately and off the record, that they felt that the turnout at the polls appeared far lower than previous elections, certainly less than when Khatami ran, and that in many cases the polling stations were utterly empty. But that’s always a problem, when you have a government that runs it’s own election, counts it’s own ballots, and then announces it’s own results. Which is probably why Ahmadinejad and Iranian officials in general, never seem to stop compensating for their lack of credibility.
So this June, it rolls around again. The same charade. The same empty promise. The same feigned respect for a system that is ultimately rigged. Entirely and utterly in favor of the system. And it absolutely has to be rigged. And beautifully so. Because they know that the system of governance in place in Iran today, cannot stand up to the scrutiny of a free people. Or even God. Which is precisely why the votes are counted, and the results announced promptly by the government. As long as they think that they control the masses, they will continue to do so. When they see they no longer have control, they will put all their foolishness away. That’s the way a bully operates. A bully stops being a bully only when the entire schoolyard stops being afraid. Even if just one snot-nosed kid fears him, he will continue to be a bully.
So not voting in this upcoming election, is actually a very good way to protest the rigged system of the bullies. Abstaining, is voting, it is a silent vote. It is a vote of no confidence. It doesn’t mean you are raising your voice, or intend to do anything to play into their waiting hands. But by raising no voice, and not voting, Iranians can exercise a freedom they seem to forget that they have had all along. The freedom to ignore.
Even though they will most likely try to silence that too. I for one would love to see them try. How do you make free people stop ignoring you? How do you silence silence?
So let’s all pledge that as Iranians, in or out of Iran, we will declare the 12th of June, Ignore the Bully Day. For one whole day, we will completely ignore them, and blank them out of our minds. Don’t mention them. Don’t think about them. Imagine they simply don’t exist. And above all, don’t fear them, and don’t vote for them.
