Spring in Iran?
Sim Kwang YangPublished: Jun 13, 2009 3:03 PM | Updated: Jun 13, 2009 3:26 PM
My first Iranian friend was a mature student in my university in Winnipeg, Canada. He was urbane, sophisticated, and friendly, and often beat me at chess. During that time, his country was still ruled by the ill-fated Shah.
My first Iranian friend was a mature student in my university in Winnipeg, Canada. He was urbane, sophisticated, and friendly, and often beat me at chess. During that time, his country was still ruled by the ill-fated Shah.
Another Iranian friend I made recently is Ali. He is studying in a PhD programme at the University of Malaya. He is the one who told me that the Iranians are the original Aryans. (According to Wikipedia, the word Iran is a cognate of Aryan, and means Land of the Aryans.)
By and large, Malaysians are not a very curious lot about far away countries. Given the religious tension in Malaysia, and the demonisation of Iran by the western media, non-Muslim Malaysians would probably think of Iran with distaste, as a closed, autocratic, backward and theocratic nation bent on making a nuclear bomb.
What most people do not realise is that Iran has an ancient history that included conquest by Alexander the Great.
They also have some of the oldest institutions of higher learning housing some rare ancient manuscripts. It is as complex and civilised as other ancient societies like China and India.
In recent decades, Iran has also emerged as a superpower in the geo-politics of the region.
Their foreign policy certainly will bear on continuing development in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their support for fellow Shiite Muslims in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine form a critical link to the road map for a two state solution in the Middle East.
'Iran awakens yet again'
The world cannot resolve the problems in these flash spots without active engagement with Iran.
Now even Iran is changing!
Weeks before the acrimonious four-corner presidential polls on Friday (June 13, 2009), a kind of revolutionary wave has swept through the capital Teheran.
This is how Roger Cohen describes it in his column article entitled “Iran awakens yet again” published in the New York Times on June 10, 2009:
"They're calling it the ‘green tsunami,’ a transformative wave unfurling down the broad avenues of the Iranian capital.
Call it what you will, but the city is agog at the campaign of Mir Hussein Moussavi (pic, right), the reformist candidate seeking to unseat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 10th post-revolution election.
"Iran, its internal fissures exposed as never before, is teetering again on the brink of change. For months now, I've been urging another look at Iran, beyond dangerous demonisation of it as a totalitarian state.
“Seldom has the country looked less like one than in these giddy June days. I wandered in a sea of green ribbons, hats, banners and bandannas to a rally at which Ahmadinejad was mocked as ‘a midget’ and Moussavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, sporting a floral hijab that taunted grey-black officialdom, warned the president that: ‘If there is vote rigging, Iran will rise up.’
“This is the nation vilified by the Bush US administration as a ‘rough’ state, and caricatured by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ruled by a regime of ‘messianic apocalyptic cult’.”
Digital technology plays a key part
Yet, the democratic spirit released by the current presidential election is the kind nowhere to be seen in many American allies in the Arab world from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
As in Malaysia, digital technology also plays a key part in Iran's silent revolution. The internet and the mobile phone have been mobilised as the most potent weapon for reform for Moussavi.
Moussavi was a competent prime minister during the war years with Iraq in the 1980s. His emphasis on his current campaign trail is on corruption in high places, at a time when unemployment and inflation hurt the life of ordinary Iranians. The UN sanction has indeed hurt the Iranian economy.
Moussavi is also calling for greater liberalisation in Iranian national life. His famous wife's participation at the frontline of the campaign has drawn massive support from Iranian women, especially students in the universities.
This is a country where traditions dictate that women's role is often limited to being a housewife and breeding children only.
I am rooting for Moussavi, as I write on polling day yesterday, even if his reformation still falls far short of my expectation. But he does look far more likely to accept Barack Obama's invitation for positive bilateral dialogue than Ahmadinejad.
Moussavi's support is also likely to come from the urban youths. Seventy per cent of the Iranian population are below the age of 70, and they are increasingly university educated.
These new generations of Iranians have no personal memory of the 1979 revolution or the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.
Ahmadinejad has support of the clerics
Ahmadinejad's (pic, left) xenophobic posturing against the US and Israel is less likely to impress them. But fairy tales in the revolutionary democratisation of any long-repressed country are rare.
Ahmadinejad is a hardliner who enjoys the tacit support of the clerics. His friends control all the instruments of the state, including the Interior Ministry which organises the election.
The Revolutionary Guards and the Basij paramilitary are powerful institutions that tend to support the incumbent president. The rural and urban poor are also more likely to vote for Ahmadinejad.
Then, there is the massive worry of vote rigging in this presidential election. When Ahmadinejad won as an unknown in 2005, there was widespread speculation that the election commission was less than free and fair.
We know how it is. When the political process is less than transparent, the temptation to distort the voting process by those in power would seem irresistible.
Besides, the democratic system in Iran is deeply flawed.
This is a theocracy after all. The supreme head of the state is the Ayatollah, who is not elected by the people, but by the 86-member Assembly of Experts, a body of senior clerics. The Ayatollah holds the final say on matters of state, even though the president can also play a powerful role in domestic affairs.
It's tough to open up a closed society
Skeptics and conservatives never tire of reminding us how under the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2005, the state repression against civil liberties was actually heightened.
Many urban middle-class voters became disillusioned with the reformist slogan, and stayed home during the 2005 presidential election, enabling right-wing Ahmadinejad to win by a landslide.
All these goes to show that the opening up of a closed society is always a long and arduous process, just as it is in Malaysia as well. It cannot be achieved overnight.
At the time of writing, the votes in Iran are still being counted. Both sides have claimed victory by a wide margin. In early counting, the election commission in Teheran has announced that Ahmadinejad was leading by a majority vote of 66 per cent. We just have to wait and see.
But the sea of green and the exuberant faces of the young ladies waving banners at the opposition rallies are etched in the international memory. It is wonderful to watch a people dreaming the impossible dream of self-liberation.
It is a lesson for Malaysians as well. We are much better placed to achieve our democratic goals than the Iranians.
Sometimes, the democratic spirit of a people so awakened will not go back to deep sleep again. The days ahead for the Iranian people will be difficult indeed.
(Sim Kwang Yang was MP for Bandar Kuching between 1982 and 1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com)
Another Iranian friend I made recently is Ali. He is studying in a PhD programme at the University of Malaya. He is the one who told me that the Iranians are the original Aryans. (According to Wikipedia, the word Iran is a cognate of Aryan, and means Land of the Aryans.) By and large, Malaysians are not a very curious lot about far away countries. Given the religious tension in Malaysia, and the demonisation of Iran by the western media, non-Muslim Malaysians would probably think of Iran with distaste, as a closed, autocratic, backward and theocratic nation bent on making a nuclear bomb.
What most people do not realise is that Iran has an ancient history that included conquest by Alexander the Great.
They also have some of the oldest institutions of higher learning housing some rare ancient manuscripts. It is as complex and civilised as other ancient societies like China and India.
In recent decades, Iran has also emerged as a superpower in the geo-politics of the region.
Their foreign policy certainly will bear on continuing development in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their support for fellow Shiite Muslims in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine form a critical link to the road map for a two state solution in the Middle East.
'Iran awakens yet again'
The world cannot resolve the problems in these flash spots without active engagement with Iran.
Now even Iran is changing!
Weeks before the acrimonious four-corner presidential polls on Friday (June 13, 2009), a kind of revolutionary wave has swept through the capital Teheran.
This is how Roger Cohen describes it in his column article entitled “Iran awakens yet again” published in the New York Times on June 10, 2009:
"They're calling it the ‘green tsunami,’ a transformative wave unfurling down the broad avenues of the Iranian capital.
Call it what you will, but the city is agog at the campaign of Mir Hussein Moussavi (pic, right), the reformist candidate seeking to unseat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 10th post-revolution election."Iran, its internal fissures exposed as never before, is teetering again on the brink of change. For months now, I've been urging another look at Iran, beyond dangerous demonisation of it as a totalitarian state.
“Seldom has the country looked less like one than in these giddy June days. I wandered in a sea of green ribbons, hats, banners and bandannas to a rally at which Ahmadinejad was mocked as ‘a midget’ and Moussavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, sporting a floral hijab that taunted grey-black officialdom, warned the president that: ‘If there is vote rigging, Iran will rise up.’
“This is the nation vilified by the Bush US administration as a ‘rough’ state, and caricatured by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as ruled by a regime of ‘messianic apocalyptic cult’.”
Digital technology plays a key part
Yet, the democratic spirit released by the current presidential election is the kind nowhere to be seen in many American allies in the Arab world from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
As in Malaysia, digital technology also plays a key part in Iran's silent revolution. The internet and the mobile phone have been mobilised as the most potent weapon for reform for Moussavi.
Moussavi was a competent prime minister during the war years with Iraq in the 1980s. His emphasis on his current campaign trail is on corruption in high places, at a time when unemployment and inflation hurt the life of ordinary Iranians. The UN sanction has indeed hurt the Iranian economy.
Moussavi is also calling for greater liberalisation in Iranian national life. His famous wife's participation at the frontline of the campaign has drawn massive support from Iranian women, especially students in the universities.
This is a country where traditions dictate that women's role is often limited to being a housewife and breeding children only.
I am rooting for Moussavi, as I write on polling day yesterday, even if his reformation still falls far short of my expectation. But he does look far more likely to accept Barack Obama's invitation for positive bilateral dialogue than Ahmadinejad.
Moussavi's support is also likely to come from the urban youths. Seventy per cent of the Iranian population are below the age of 70, and they are increasingly university educated.
These new generations of Iranians have no personal memory of the 1979 revolution or the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.
Ahmadinejad has support of the clerics
Ahmadinejad's (pic, left) xenophobic posturing against the US and Israel is less likely to impress them. But fairy tales in the revolutionary democratisation of any long-repressed country are rare.Ahmadinejad is a hardliner who enjoys the tacit support of the clerics. His friends control all the instruments of the state, including the Interior Ministry which organises the election.
The Revolutionary Guards and the Basij paramilitary are powerful institutions that tend to support the incumbent president. The rural and urban poor are also more likely to vote for Ahmadinejad.
Then, there is the massive worry of vote rigging in this presidential election. When Ahmadinejad won as an unknown in 2005, there was widespread speculation that the election commission was less than free and fair.
We know how it is. When the political process is less than transparent, the temptation to distort the voting process by those in power would seem irresistible.
Besides, the democratic system in Iran is deeply flawed.
This is a theocracy after all. The supreme head of the state is the Ayatollah, who is not elected by the people, but by the 86-member Assembly of Experts, a body of senior clerics. The Ayatollah holds the final say on matters of state, even though the president can also play a powerful role in domestic affairs.
It's tough to open up a closed society
Skeptics and conservatives never tire of reminding us how under the reformist presidency of Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2005, the state repression against civil liberties was actually heightened.
Many urban middle-class voters became disillusioned with the reformist slogan, and stayed home during the 2005 presidential election, enabling right-wing Ahmadinejad to win by a landslide.
All these goes to show that the opening up of a closed society is always a long and arduous process, just as it is in Malaysia as well. It cannot be achieved overnight.
At the time of writing, the votes in Iran are still being counted. Both sides have claimed victory by a wide margin. In early counting, the election commission in Teheran has announced that Ahmadinejad was leading by a majority vote of 66 per cent. We just have to wait and see.
But the sea of green and the exuberant faces of the young ladies waving banners at the opposition rallies are etched in the international memory. It is wonderful to watch a people dreaming the impossible dream of self-liberation.
It is a lesson for Malaysians as well. We are much better placed to achieve our democratic goals than the Iranians.
Sometimes, the democratic spirit of a people so awakened will not go back to deep sleep again. The days ahead for the Iranian people will be difficult indeed.
(Sim Kwang Yang was MP for Bandar Kuching between 1982 and 1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com)
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