BALLOTS BRING THE HONEYMOON OF 'REFORMS' TO AN END
Sunday, March 7, 2003
The statement about the February 28 Municipal elections
Ballots bring the honeymoon of 'reforms' to an end. The ever-present silent cry of the people of Iran has once again made it to the world's political news. And this is the third message that Iranian citizens send in the safest and the least costly way they know. May the authorities hear this deafening silence! But do they?
Among the power elite and their media allies, there are people who, as always and as could not be expected otherwise, present the negative of the image they see instead of its original. The presence of the people by the millions in the 1997 and 2001 elections was simply represented as a response to such and such person's call, and their clear and significant votes were interpreted as votes for the System. But how are they going to explain the mere12% to 18% participation of the people in major cities in the February 28 elections? Where the elections are free of ethnic and religious prejudices and the presence or lack thereof of the people is purely a political act, what are they going to call the refusal of 80% of eligible voters to perform their legitimate duty? Clearly, they cannot but take the pitifully small portion of the glass [i.e. the 20% who participated and mostly voted for Fundamentalists] and celebrate the 'victory of the Fundamentalists' with it while letting the Reformists have the larger portion [i.e. the 80% who didn't participate at all] which is only a void of rage and silence. Of course, it is their choice to descend towards corruption with such vigor, sinking in the darkest ignorance, but if one was to comment on their logic, one has to say that they do indeed insult the intelligence of observers.
The other group, Dovvom e Khordadi ha ['affiliated with May 23, 1997'], however, were so indulged in their victory in previous elections that they forgot to look around and make sure that they still had people left in the audience applauding for them when they were happily choosing a new mayor. When they found their 14 million supporters disappointed by them on May 2001, reform theoreticians simply left it to the Authoritarians to take care of the matter, as if they had such will or legitimacy to bring back the votes of the people. If they could really do so, what has this entire struggle over the past 5 years been about?
Indeed, it is a source of concern that even the presence of the oppressed opposition, the Supreme Leader's dissatisfaction with the candidates' qualification process, and the relative freedom of the elections were not enough to motivate people to participate in the elections. It looks like the apathy, which all the optimists and advocates of election-based reforms tried to kill every time it was conceived, is finally celebrating its birth right now, right here in this city. Whatever you call it, it is the offspring of our society's mental and psychic frustration over generously yet uselessly investing its votes, emotions, and positions in 'reforms'. Add all that to the shameful performance of Tehran's City Council and its pitiful fate, in order to understand why 30 million Iranians passed by the election polls with a sneer and preferred to follow the latest news of the US's assault on their neighboring country, Iraq.
A large number of people in Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz demonstrated passive resistance by choosing not to use their right to vote, a right that every nation pays a high price to achieve. As part of the Student Movement, we believe that their action cannot be easily judged as right or wrong. To patiently enforce the collective will through participation in elections is still considered by the analysts as the least costly means of achieving political goals. However, maybe the public no longer buys the idea that every political withdrawal equals more violence, repression, chaos, and foreign interference. Maybe some unwritten and intuitive agreement has passed through the public's mind to give itself freely to a new experience, i.e. passive resistance, while consciously avoiding the pitfalls of complete chaos and disintegration.
We warn you of an attitude that is becoming more and more common, be it a good sign or a bad one. What exactly it is, how it works, and where it ends is what a superior judge, i.e. the 12th Imam, will determine. But at this point one thing is clear and that is, if the Reformists do not want to end up in the museum of political history or to become bearers of meaningless titles by the next parliamentary elections next year, they need to stop repeating the same rotten and boring ideas of the reform discourse. If they cannot provide the voters with new options, then they should join the rest of us in our efforts to put this 'most free, stable and democratic system of the world' out of its misery altogether.
The Islamic Association of University Students
Sharif University of Technology
English translation by ABF