Real Change
By Amin Sabooni Friday’s political upheaval seems to have buried, at least for the next four years, all notions of cosmetic changes that failed miserably to deliver in the past.
Going by the numbers, it is not very difficult to understand why the powerful Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani failed and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president. Tired, frustrated, thirsty for economic justice, and looking for real change, 17.2 million Iranians voted for the little known mayor of Tehran. Some 10 million found the former president and head of the State Expediency Council a better choice.
Dr. Ahmadinejad, who prefers to identify closer with the academia (he is a university instructor) rather than politics, was better aware of what the people wanted for a quarter century. During his election campaign, the man, who will take over Iran’s presidency in less than six weeks, focused on issues that touched the lives of ordinary people.
Many things may not have been on his side to qualify him for the top job millions found the charismatic and pragmatist Rafsanjani unfit for. But one thing was certainly on the side of the incoming president and that was resentment.
Aware that the system was faltering despite the honest pledges and efforts of Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad has said he is able and willing to go to the heart of the problem. At the root of our wretchedness, backwardness and misery, he said in his election manifesto, lay corruption, wholesale mismanagement and greed. Promising to provide belated justice, Iran’s sixth president has gone out of his way to convey that he is a doer and will embark on a system that holds the top brass responsible for its action or the lack of it. "Managers are not the masters or rulers of the people. They are in fact their servants," the incoming head of the executive branch has declared.
Derided as "hardliner, religious conservative, ardent supporter of the status quo," or "extremist wanting to turn back the clock 25 years", Ahmadinejad succeeded in winning the confidence of 17 million Iranians. This is democracy and part of an established electoral process. By the same token, it is the duty of the advocates of betterment and voting power to respect the people’s verdict. Despite our visible weakness in the experiment with political freedoms and civil liberties, we have to move forward at our own pace. There simply can be no going back.
The nation has picked a new president under some of the most difficult and complicated conditions, which guide our equally difficult march toward good governance, equal opportunities and accountability in high places. Very many may not like the outcome of today’s presidential election. Large numbers also seem to have panicked for a variety of reasons, attesting namely to the fact that almost 40 percent of the eligible 47 million voters preferred to stay away. But that does not change the ground realities.
Due to the prolonged and deepening alienation of rulers and the ruled, and as our people feel more disempowered and disconnected, they have finally spoken out. On two Fridays the ruling establishment came across a huge movement for change and the dangerous monopoly on power was once again challenged in a peaceful manner. How and when the successor to Khatami will deliver remains to be seen. It is in the interest of all that he finds practical solutions to practical problems, as he has pledged on more occasions than one. It will also be much better for the powerhouses and some self-appointed spokesmen of freedom and democracy to reflect on their performance, realize the potential of the people for change, and use it wisely.
The source: Iran Daily.