Abdorrahman Boroumand Center

Analytical communique of the Islamic Association of Amir Kabir Technical University of Tehran regarding the political circumstances of the country and the necessity for the formation of a new democratic [E] front.*

These are the days following the widespread late-spring protests and demonstrations by the students and ordinary people and the subsequent arrests and imprisonments of the students, reporters and political activists; with the obvious internal and external political problems, the Iranian nation endures days in which no one is any longer able to deny the existence of a cul-de-sac in the political atmosphere of the country.

While the pressures exerted by the reigning absolutists on the social and political institutions has reached a high point in the recent years, and the fair and friendly criticisms of the people are repaid in bad faith and with inhumane methods of imprisonment and torture; and where even the representatives of the people to the parliament are unable to hold on to their minimum rights, and are in no way close to delivering their campaign promises of the not-too-distant past; while those amongst these representatives who, in the face of all adversity try to maintain their pledge to their constituents in defending their rights are merely awaiting the time when under the choke-hold of the tyrannical forces of repression who answer all calls for freedom with repression and imprisonment, they too share the predicament of all free souls of this land; under these circumstances, to speak of a reform from within the system is but a bitter joke that does not any longer bring any at all animation to the subdued faces and does not generate any hope in the hearts that today under the will and want of the reigning religious absolutism can only see blackness and hopelessness.

Under these circumstances the most important duty of all political activists and groups is to commit to a path away from the present dead-end, and to try to look for a bright and clear horizon, a democratic government committed to respecting the rights of all its citizens, one that works towards their welfare and security and for the eradication of all currently reigning discriminations in the Iranian society, which function through a division of the citizens into two groups of insiders and outsiders, first-class and second-class, and only contribute to the further retardation and the ever increasing disintegration of Iran; today, these political forces should work towards attaining a free society in which the possibility of advancement and enjoyment of all human rights is provided equally and for the entirety of the population.

Keeping the importance of the above considerations and the effect they have on the fate of the Iranian nation in mind, the mention of the points below seems quite necessary:

1. The current dead-end reigning over the political atmosphere of Iran, which has by now turned into the essential actuality of the society, can be deduced from three main causes: a) existence of the essential and fundamental problems in the Fundamental Law [The Constitution of (the Islamic Republic of) Iran],

b) the anti-rationality and the inhumanity of the absolutist [the actual] rulers of the country, and

c) a lack of qualification, correct understanding, and sincere will amongst the reformists who would challenge the autocrat absolutists.

These three factors have worked together to lead to the wasting of the existing enormous social potential [E] in an endless well of reform from within. Below, each of these factors will be analyzed in more detail.

The Fundamental Law, which should in reality be the primary instrument for defense of the people's will to chose their own destiny, and the guarantor of the fundamental rights of citizens visa-vie the will of possible autocratic rulers, because of the existence of stipulations for unelected institutions within it - which in various ways and with complete control over the organs elected by the people have lead to the paralyzing of the latter, - has itself been turned into an instrument at the hand of the absolutist autocrats, who in turn use it for the suppression and the ignoring of the will of the citizenry. As long as the contradictions and fundamental problems within this document have not been addressed and gotten rid of, it will undoubtedly continue to be used as an instrument at the hand of despots for the purposes of their continuing infringement upon the fate of the people and the wellbeing of the Iranian nation. With the above in mind, conducting a national referendum on the Fundamental Law for the purposes of taking away one of the fundamental obstacles in the way of the establishment of democracy in Iran is an undeniable necessity.

Another major factor in the way of the establishment of freedom and democracy has been the completely illogical and inhumane comportment of the absolutists, - particularly in the years following the events of 2 Khordad 1376 [birth of reform in the summer of 1997], - who have in various and consistent ways provided impediments in the way of the establishment of freedom and democracy, and also count as major factors in the defeat of the project [E] of reform. A brief review of the crisis that have taken shape in the recent years from the "chained-murders" affairs to the catastrophe of 18 Tir 1378 [the bloody crack down of the students in the summer of July 1999] and from the arrest and the closure of the free press to the imprisonment of political activists and students, and many other such cases that by now have lost all novelty in the minds of the populace in light of their quantity and constant recurrence, all point to the resilient will of the regime for collision with, and insistence upon the taking away of the will of the people to reform the affairs of the country. Along these lines, contrary to the claim of the reformists, the regime has shown absolute solidity and remarkable vigilance. The effects of this strategy of the forces and institutions of absolutism upon the lowering of the threshold of society's patience, and people's readiness to voice their protest in any possible way, is most clearly visible in the spread of a simple and restricted student protest into widespread and unremitting public unrest in the late spring and early summer of this year.

Despite all the above mentioned factors, the greatest reason for the defeat of the project of reform must be attributed to the reformists' own inability, their lack of timely recognition of the actualities of the society, and also the functional conservatism of the forces of reform that together with some fundamental contradictions within their own discourse, has always already worked detrimental to their attempted use of public support for their project, and so with loss of this most essential factor for the advancement of reform [i.e. the people's support] and their inability to bypass the aforementioned barriers in the way of reform [points a and b, above], the Khordad 2-front [the reformists] lost the ability to get beyond the hurdle of the unelected institutions of decision-making within the political system of Iran, and this in real terms meant the ultimate defeat of the reforms from the very start and for all practical purposes.

From a more insightful vantage point one can maintain that if not all of the insider-reformist, then at least the majority of them, on the one hand based on their ideological [E] ties to the regime, and on the other hand because of their allotment in the benefits of power, were from the very beginning not genuinely interested in fulfilling the reforms they promised. This can be further detected in their inability to offer a clear and straightforward description of reforms, in their failure to accept concepts, such as democracy, without amendments, conditions and compromises, and in their failure to defend the articles of human rights comprehensively and unremittingly. And this is so much so, that today, after the passing of more than six years from the official begin of the reforms on 2 Khordad 1376, the lack of coherence amongst those who claim to be reformists is quite plain to see. On the one hand those who nursed the ambition of reaching presidency of the republic, attribute the criticisms of the reformists' project to a plot by the enemy and accuse the honest critics to be spies and connected to foreign powers, and on the other hand there are those who cry out the slogan, "reform is dead, long live reform," which is only a slogan for to gain the betrayed public confidence once again in order to continue the pointless path of the recent years without offering any clear roadmap for the exiting, current, atmosphere. And then there are those who have reduced the problem merely to whether or not certain of the candidates [E] will get their approval to be reelected or not, and claim the approval of these to be the condition for attainment of democracy. Most depressing of all is that while it is quite plain to see how "religious tyranny" has brought on the comprehensive depression of society in all its areas and spheres, some speak about preferring a "tyranny from within" to "exploitation from abroad" as if the problem of today's Iran stemmed from foreign exploitation!

The points that were introduced above are testaments to the level of understanding and insight of those who claim to be reformists, and show their level of dedication to democracy. It is furthermore a proof that the defeat of the reformers in reaching their stated goals depends more on their own lack of clear understanding of and dedication to concepts such as democracy and human rights and their own lack of genuine will in fighting for the needs and wants of their constituents, than on the defiance and resistance of the autocrats.

2. Keeping in mind the above described situation, and in the light of the indissoluble contradictions between the thought-patterns and ideologies [E] of the fundamentalist rulers of Iran on the one hand, and the necessities and right obligations of Iran visa-vie the ever-changing world on the other, and keeping in mind the apparent foreign policy of the greatest military, political and economical might in the world which has put in question the legitimacy of some of the most accepted hypothesis in the theater of international politics, - such as the discourses of national sovereignty and democracy, - and in light of the immanent foreign threats, military or otherwise, it seems that the political strategy of all of the forces of internal autocracy, in keeping with people's lack of enthusiasm for supporting expired ideas that have reached a dead-end [i.e. the reform] is formed around the theory of "internal crackdown and foreign appeasement," and with this strategy, some are trying to buy time and create the conditions for rapprochement with America, so that while taking care of the factor [E] of foreign pressure, with the excuse of national interests, they could crack down most cruelly the protesting movements of internal critics, and in this way further secure their hold on power a while longer.

This is going on, while only a few months have passed since the collapse of the tyrannical and anti-human regime of Saddam in Iraq, - which incidentally showed similar last-minute willingness to backtrack in relation to its atomic programs and the matters of the additional protocols of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The conditions of the region today show clearly the end of autocratic regimes; regimes, which in their decision-making process do not hold council with their own people, and hold the latter to be nothing, treading their human rights underfoot, and ultimately bringing about the state of affairs as they are: where the people of the region are today playing hosts to uninvited guests.

3. With the above points in mind, one can argue that the foremost political necessity for Iran today is the formation of a widespread front for democracy in order to exit the state of affairs as they are. An attempt for the creation of this wide-reaching front with the goal of assuring freedom and the establishment of a republican system can be the key solution to all of the problems that the Iranian society faces, ranging from political to economic.

Such a coalition would be based on all the forces, which see the origin of the legitimacy of political power only in the vote of the people, and believe that there is no other way than to conduct a free election for the implementation of the will of the people; this is the way for all the republican groups to take part in reaching for this democratic goal.

Since the formation of such a coalition, because of the wide-ranging preferences amongst the existing political activists, and also the level of existing possibilities in the political culture of Iran and the differences between the various groups defending republicanism seems difficult, logic dictates that the coalition to be formed, should do so around a minimum criterion rather than an all consuming strategy, since in this way, many points-in-common can be found amongst the various republican forces. In this, it must be kept in mind that the opposing of a theocratic tyranny is not the only sign of commitment to all the points of democracy, and the primary goal of this coalition, which is to be formed with the participation of the ordinary people and democratic groups, must above all else, be the establishment of a democratic system.

It is clear that the 2nd of Khordad-front [the reformists-front], taking into consideration its peculiarities and performance up to now, cannot play the part of this coalition, and it must be said plainly that the political life of this front has effectively ended; hence an attempt at formation of a greater republican front through the widening and reforming the 2 Khordad-front also, is a futile and unrealistic undertaking. Of course parts of this front which see themselves as unconditional defenders of democracy, committed to the implementation of free elections as the only means to carry out the will of the people, i.e. the realization of people's control over their own destiny, could participate in this greater coalition for democracy.

The first step of this coalition for reaching democracy must be a push - within the recognized boundaries of civility - in order to compel the regime to accept the will of the nation outside the currently accepted parameters, and force the regime to approve of a referendum [E] on the Fundamental Law. The various reformist factions within the regime must also be aware, that an appeal to the vote of the people and a peaceful transfer of power based on reconsideration of the Fundamental Law, is meant to be in order to take away the institutional choke-holds within it, which take away the direct implementation of the will of the people upon the government, and that this is the only way to save the country and the nation from the powerful threats looming over it. Anything besides this, such as matters like the acceptance or the rejection of the additional protocols of the International Atomic Energy Agency are indeed irrelevant.

All of the republican intellectuals and political activists, who are committed to a peaceful and nonviolent political struggle can take part in this path through their support of any and all activities which are undertaken with the goal of realizing the rights of the nation and the establishment of democracy [E] in Iran. There is no need to mention that under the current conditions, the only correct strategy is the increasing of political pressure using the national and the international means with the goal of realization of the rights of the nation.

In conclusion, once again, as a part of the Iranian student movement, which has in recent years continuously taken steps along the path of the struggle for democracy and human rights, and has paid for it dearly, we declare that the students despite all the troubles, remain firm on demanding the freedom of speech and thought, the unconditional implementation of human rights on the part of the government, the defense of the people's right to choose their own destiny, recognizing the people as the final judge and jury on all disputes, and as always is prepared to pay all that is necessary in order to reach a democratic governance and a humane society.

The Islamic Student Association of Amir Kabir Technical University

(Tehran Polytechnic)

* English translation by ABF