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I will watch his every move
Reza Pahlavi must throw away the old and start afresh

By Mehdi Amini
January 22, 2002
The Iranian

In the last month or so, I've been following the debates on Iranian.com concerning Reza Pahlavi and the return of monarchy to Iran and I have come to the following conclusion. We Iranians are bunch of NAMAK NASHNAS people. Ungrateful.

Have we forgotten what great deeds his father did for us while ruling Iran? Did we forget all the lavish parties we attended? Or maybe you didn't receive your invitations. (Blame it on the mail). Don't you remember the millions he spent in organizing the 2,500-year anniversary of the Persian Empire to show the world how classy people we are?

Yeah I know about the people in HALABI Abad, the impoverished section in south Tehran, but that's beside the point. Don't you remember those damn foreigners who arrested his sister and tried to humiliate her involvement in drug trafficking? It's all a conspiracy.

Don't you remember how he tried to save you from becoming wasted with all those nonsense books that you couldn't read? He was doing you a favor by banning some bad books and publications. It was for your own sake that his government was using torture and sending people to jail.

Don't you remember when he was leaving the country, he lay on his knees to pick up a handful of Iranian soil? Didn't it tell you how much he loved his country? After all he deserved the millions he took with him. It was his salary. And it isn't Reza's fault he lost it? Again blame it on foreign conspiracies and those very bad bad people around him.

Come now you people. If the Shah had spent the oil money wisely on educating the people and not wasting it the on lavish lifestyle of the royal family, maybe the people could have been wise enough not to be fooled by Khomeini and not see his face on the moon.

If the Shah had given freedom and not banned any political parties, maybe the people would not have talked about a revolution. If he had not hauled you away for reading an unauthorized book, maybe we wouldn't have had to sit here and write in iranian.com. And this site would have been in Iran.

I saw Reza Pahlavi's interview with Barbara Walters and I was very impressed. I have to congratulate him. He talked very well. He talked about the fact that he does not care if he has any role in the future government and whatever people want, it shall be.

But talking is not enough. You have to be genuine. Don't we remember the nice things Khomeini said when he was in Paris? He said he would go to Qom and be a religious figure and stay out of government.

I truly believe in the saying that power brings corruption. First and foremost, I believe that if you want to show people that you really mean what you say, you have to distance yourself from the past. Be like the common man. Take a job and find out what it means to work to survive.

If he wants a new beginning, criticizing some of his father's actions is not enough. You have to throw away the old and start afresh. Just being the son of a king does not give you special privileges.

When Reza Pahlavi denies having money and relies solely on the help of the people, it is a lie. We all read the papers a few years back when he had sued this guy for allegedly plundering his fortune through bad investments. That fortune was / is not his money.

I could give him a chance. Not as a leader but as a person concerned about the future of Iran; as a commoner. Not a king. I will watch his every move and criticize when I disagree with him. I will not be like the old days.

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