March
4, 2003 9:00 a.m. The
Iranian-Election Revolt
The
people speak. The West won’t listen.
nce again, there is big news out of Iran, and once again the Western media
refuse to see what is in front of their noses. Iran held municipal elections
over the weekend. All the regime's big guns had implored the people to
turn out in record numbers, to demonstrate that the people were committed
to participation in the Islamic Republic. Supreme Leader Khamenei, Eminence
Grise Rafsanjani, and President Khatami — the vapid matinee idol
of the New York and Los Angeles Times apologists —
made clear their desperate desire for a record turnout.
Be
careful what you ask for. There was a record turnout, but it was a negative
record. The official reports speak of a ten-percent turnout in Tehran
and other major cities, with higher participation elsewhere. If those
numbers were accurate, it would represent a massive abstention, and hence
an enormous vote of no confidence in the system. But the real numbers
are worse still: Of the roughly seven million people entitled to vote
in Tehran, less than 70,000 actually voted. I make that about one percent.
These data come directly from a high-ranking official involved in the
elections office, who was shocked by the results.
The Iranian people rejected the regime in the most unmistakable way,
yet the "story" you read in our newspapers is that the hard
liners routed the reformers in something resembling a real election. As
if the Iranian people, after years of mass demonstrations against the
mullahcracy, after thousands of freedom fighters had sacrificed their
lives in protest against Islamic oppression, had suddenly seen the darkness
and decided they preferred tyranny to freedom. Or perhaps they had heard
the shameful nonsense emanating from the mouth of Deputy Secretary of
State Armitage ("Iran is a democracy") and decided that since
the Supreme Leader was a confirmed democrat, the best path to liberty
was to give the regime a huge vote of confidence.
No way. The elections were a protest non-vote, pure and simple. The pathetic
Khatami and his apologists at the BBC and elsewhere in the Western media
are now crying that "the system" is being undermined and chances
for reform have been weakened, but they have totally missed the point.
Chances for reform are nil so long as Khamenei and Rafsanjani are in command,
and the Iranian people are disgusted with Khatami's failed promises and
empty gestures. He's not only ineffectual, but a coward to boot. He's
threatened to resign with monotonous regularity, but never does it. He
promised reforms but has produced none at all, and there is manifestly
less freedom today than when he came to office.
If we had had any honest reporters in Tehran for the past two weeks,
they would have put the elections in their proper context. The vote came
hard on the heels of a weeklong demonstration for the benefit of the United
Nations Human Rights Commission, which visited Iran on a fact-finding
mission. Headed by the usual Frenchman, the commission managed to complain
about the protracted use of solitary confinement in Iranian prisons. But
they did not denounce the more terrible practices such as torture and
arbitrary executions. Indeed, while they were in Iran, the regime rounded
up five more newspaper editors and locked them up, with no protest from
the commissioners. And apparently the commissioners did not insist on
interviewing the country's most celebrated prisoners, like student leader
Tabarzadeh or the recently arrested jurist Sholeh Sadi, who had bravely
denounced the regime in uncompromising language. And unbeknownst to the
commissioners, the regime had staged a "dry run" for the prisoners.
Blonde-haired, blue-eyed agents of the regime, pretending to be commissioners,
were sent into the prisons to interview prisoners. Those who complained
about maltreatment were isolated, and maltreated some more. Those who
spoke well about their conditions were permitted to be interviewed by
the real commissioners.
God willing, Judgment Day is coming to the Middle East, and the long-suffering
people of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia will get their chance to
be free. I have no doubt that they will have suitably harsh words for
the Western governments and journalists who failed to help them, or even
tell the real story.
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nce again, there is big news out of Iran, and once again the Western media
refuse to see what is in front of their noses. Iran held municipal elections
over the weekend. All the regime's big guns had implored the people to
turn out in record numbers, to demonstrate that the people were committed
to participation in the Islamic Republic. Supreme Leader Khamenei, Eminence
Grise Rafsanjani, and President Khatami — the vapid matinee idol
of the New York and Los Angeles Times apologists —
made clear their desperate desire for a record turnout.
