[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[Rasker]

Voter boycott in Iran sends regime a message
6/20/2005 yorku.ca
http://www.iranian.ws/

Iranians have lost faith completely in the possibility of reform within the present power structure, wrote Saeed Rahnema, political scientist with York’s Faculty of Arts, in a Toronto Star opinion piece June 17. There were massive campaigns to boycott Friday’s presidential election, and the turnout was expected to be low. This is not voter apathy, as many are actively involved in convincing those eligible not to vote. This is a sort of passive participation (along the line of passive resistance), said Rahnema. The Iranian electorate wants to send a message to the regime that it has lost its legitimacy.



Regardless of who becomes the next president, no major changes in internal and external politics is expected, suggested Rahnema. Hardliners will continue to control the main levers of power. Without an organized opposition, the establishment will suppress any real efforts toward democracy and reform. Yet, the more they continue to rule in this manner, the more the Islamic regime is rotting from within and the less it is capable of pretending to be a legitimate popular government.


This will eventually make them vulnerable to the constant push of the Iranian people toward establishing a truly democratic and secular regime. Unless there is an uncalled for foreign intervention, which will rejuvenate this ailing dinosaur, Iranians will eventually succeed in replacing this regime. We should only hope that Americans under the Bush administration understand this simple truth, wrote Rahnema.


In The Globe and Mail June 17, Rahnema described a leading presidential contender Mustafa Moin as a reformer, but only within a political structure that is tightly controlled by the clerical hierarchy. "Moin wants to reform but this is a very minor, gradual reform within the framework of the Islamic regime," Rahnema said. Outgoing president Mohammed Khatami "was a charismatic leader, an important figure, but he proved indecisive and he didn't want to move beyond the limits set within the Islamic constitution, which is under the leadership of what is called the absolute sovereignty of the jurists, the supreme leader," Rahnema said. "Within that, you cannot have a truly open election, you cannot have democracy."
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