Wednesday, May 21, 2003

Iran: the temporay reformers, the persistent reform progress
Khatami is a failure. Many people say that these days and I cannot agree more. Despite that, I still belive Iranians campaign towards modernism has a future. It is not over yet. Is this phase of social reforms over? Yes, this is as far as Khatami and his fellow reformers could go. Is Irans campaign towards modernism and social beterment over? No, not at all. It did not start 6 years ago but with the 1905 revolution and even before, and it is not going to stop with Khatami.
In my opinion we are now at a very interesting stage of our history. The religous establishment that acted as a major barrier against most of the modernist and democratic efforts in the past is now exposed to the public. It is loosing its sacredness quickly, even between the most illiterate rural people. Are people depressed and disappointed these days? Yes they are but this will soon change. Remeber the months before the presidential elections of 1997. People were so depresse in those days. Khatami and his felloew reformists did help Iran's history various ways. First, they clarified the political cimate. I remember during rafsanjani's presidency, I used to explain about the left wing and the right wing within the regim as if I knew some secret knowledge. Most people had very little idea about the differences between the ruling politicians. Second, they exposed the hardliners (and even themselves) to the public and broke down the wall of sacredness that stood between them and the common people for many years. They said, and made their oponents say, things that would have only been said behind the closed doors, prior to 1997. This gave the public a lot of invaluable insight. Third, they explored all the potentials of the constitution and (probably unintentionally) proved in practice that it does not have the capacity for any more democratic refoms. The modification of constitution is proven indispensable now. Fourth, these six years were a kind of democracy tutorial for Iranians. At least most people, even in the remotest towns learned how to vote. Sometimes you see serious competitions between candidates in a very small town. This is a very great gift to have in the middle east, unthinkable for most of the people in that region. All these have made iranians ready for the bigger challenges that await them in the next phase. I personally hope for a solution that comes from within the country rather that without.
[I cannot belive I sound so optimistic in this post!]

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