Tuesday, June 23, 2009

What Iranians Want

What do Iranians want? Is it really democracy?

well, a group of them do want democracy, without the interference of religion. A group of them want democracy and religion without knowing these two cannot always co-exist. A group of them only want to have enough money to live. A group of them have everything they need for a luxurious living and they only want some freedom.

People who participated in the last week's rallies and demonstrations, may have come from any of these groups. What they all have in common, which is the most powerful engine for their movement, is that they want Ahmadinejad out. So, in one point of view, democracy may not be seen as their prior demand. They know Ahmadinejad is a dictator, a dogmatic self-centered babbling machine, and most importantly a lier. And they cannot tolerate him for another four years.

Now the critical question: would these demonstrators still show any objection to the election results if they believed it was not rigged? The answer is a definite NO. We have a proverb in Farsi which says: "People will get what they deserve" and I've heard it being used a lot during the past four years of Ahmadinejad's embarrassing presidency. They believed people who had voted for him, along with those who had not voted (because of the dilemma), should have suffered the consequences. So in a way they respect democracy. They truly believe Mousavi is the winner, and they want him to take the power out of the hands of their current inept president.

However, through the last four days and after Khameneyi's Friday speech, this movement has taken a new direction. People have known how clerics have been ruling this country for the past 30 years, but now the dictatorship is all in the open. Now their innocent brothers and sisters are killed in the streets. Now, they are blatantly told they have no right to object to anything (be it the election results and a biased Guardian Council) because the dictator says so. Now they are fighting for freedom.

Their most difficult task is to get the other half of the society to open their eyes and see what they've been clinging on as their sacred source of Devine directions, is nothing but a corrupt system of power-loving dictators.

1 comment:

Elroy said...

Interesting insight. I know relatively little about Iranian culture. This revolution if it succeeds will be because of the Iranian people. It seems to me that the US keeping its distance will help those opposing the current regime. If the US were to involve itself directly do you think it would unite people behind the current regime against the US?