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Sehaty Foreign Exchange


February 22, 2000

Jumping the gun

It's true that recent events in Iran bring some sense of optimism, but to say that "democracy has finally arrived", is in my humble opinion premature and naive ["The ballot box"].

While 1,500 students still are in prisons and the people who threw them off the third floor of their dorms are running around free, while no one has yet truly been implicated for the serial murders of 1998 with the exception of some imaginary dude, Said Emami, while it was only weeks ago when we had a German guy in prison for the crime of having sex with somebody, while ancient allegations and rhetoric of CIA and FBI's relationships with Saeed Emami and his wife can be publicly mentioned by government officials, while those responsible for mass executions of thousands of Iranians and the destruction of Iranian economy still walk around freely, it's hard to truly speak about democracy.

Democracy's first rule, is a pluralistic government. Did anyone who officially rejected the notion of Velayate Faghih participate in this election? Did any party with the exception of those within the framework of Islamic Republic participate in this election? does democracy in Iran mean working within the frameworks of IRI? Isn't there anyone out there who could represent thousands of Iranians who are not per se religious?

True, there is reason to be optimistic, but we Iranians have to start having higher expectations. "Good enough" is not enough and should not be enough for us. We have lived 2,500 years under the yoke of various rulers from the monarchs who paid little attention to their subjects to mollas who followed the same line with corruption and unparalleled dictatorship.

Instead of making heroes out of ordinary people who are merely doing their job, at most, we should expect more from our government, from our officials, from our system. We DESERVE better and we must GET better. As a nation, we have a daunting task ahead of us. We can not be satisfied with half efforts, with just "Good enough"!

Only when we reach a day, when no one will be arrested and jailed for their political beliefs, no one fears expressing their opinions, and every government official starts feeling responsible for their actions, then we have achieved democracy. Until then, we are merely working towards it, at the very best.

Jafar D.


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