Dictatorial Democracy; A Vote of No Confidence in Iran
February 21, 2004
The Times
Leading Article
Dictators and totalitarian regimes are contemptibly eager to demonstrate bogus democratic credentials. The Soviet authorities used to go to extraordinary lengths to organise "free" elections that were predetermined. Robert Mugabe insists on a charade of electoral campaigns and universal suffrage when intimidation, vote-rigging and fraud are the methods used to produce a spurious result in his favour. And North Korea's regime gets as close as is possible to a perfect electoral score. Yesterday's general election in Iran was as cynical and undemocratic as anything an Orwellian state could devise, with a self appointed clerical elite forcing a cowed press and subservient religious establishment to hail the "democratic" outcome of an election shorn of all but the trappings of democracy.
Iranians had no illusions about the election for the 290-seat parliament. From the moment that the 12-man Council of Guardians used its veto power to ban more than 3,000 liberal candidates, it was obvious that the embattled conservatives would use every legal loophole, theological casuistry and all available levers of power to hobble their opponents and maintain their power. Students, human rights activists and reformers know well the lengths to which the thuggish guardians of the Khomeini revolution will go to block change: vigilantes beat up demonstrators, activists are thrown into jail or murdered, newspapers are banned and editors arrested, and the courts are used to subvert human rights and manipulate the law.
The reformers, to their credit, have fought back, returning to the streets, re-forming disbanded parties, reopening banned newspapers and speaking out against repression. But many are weary and disillusioned. For young people -who constitute almost half the burgeoning population -politics has become a dead end, offering little hope of change through existing channels. The reformist parliamentarians tried various tactics to counter the clerical hardliners, but with little success. Appeals to Ali Khamanei, the Supreme Leader, resulted in the cosmetic reinstatement of some candidates, a move made all the more farcical by the subsequent rebanning of most of them so that in the end more than 2,500 - almost all reformers -were disbarred.
More than 120 sitting members of parliament resigned in protest and staged a three-week sit-in. They called for a boycott of the vote in an attempt to show the world that the elections lack all validity, religious or democratic. But their action was undercut by the weak response of President Khatami, once the vehicle for reform hopes but recently reduced to a vacillating and inarticulate figurehead. His League of Combatant Clerics was hastily assembled in a last ditch attempt to stop the conservatives winning a majority; it looked too little, too late.
Nevertheless, the derisory turnout is a blow to the Guardian Council and its allies. Many in the hardline camp do not care: their preoccupation has been to protect their own personal wealth, often corruptly amassed through state approved quasi-religious monopolies, and to stop any judicial investigation of their own abuses of power. But the election leaves Iran's neighbours and those countries such as Britain insisting on "critical engagement" with a problem. How much should they continue with business as normal?
Jack Straw may have believed it essential to keep lines open to Tehran, especially during the Iraq war and the tense aftermath. But the Foreign Secretary's frequent visits to Iran have done naught to bolster reform. Dialogue with a country as strategic as Iran is important; but endorsing a hardline regime is the worst kind of appeasement.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/EU says dialogue with Iran to continue
The EU expressed Friday its concern about the conditions under which parliamentary elections are being held in Iran, but underlined that the European bloc's policy to engage the Islamic Republic in dialogue has not changed, IRNA reported from Brussels.
"We are watching developments closely and we are concerned as to what happened in the run-up to these elections," a European Commission source told journalists today in apparent reference to the disqualification of over 2500 candidates.
"The quality of democracy effects our relations with all of our partners. Clearly it is something we take very seriously." "But what it doesn't change is our clear presence to keep channel of communication open and develop ways of talking to Iran." "We are still very keen to maintain all the instruments of dialogue that we have with Iran," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The EU foreign ministers' council is to discuss ties with Tehran in its formal monthly session in Brussels on Monday. The council will also discuss whether to resume negotiations on Trade and Cooperation agreement which is under an "informal pause" since last year June.
IAEA chief Mohammad El-Baradei's report on Iran might be released on Monday or early next week, noted the source.
"We wanted Iran to sign the Additional Protocol, and they have but we also wanted to see verification of implementation of that." On Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment programme, discussions are going on the definition of that undertaking, explained the source. "We are looking forward to what Mr. Baradei has to say." "But the key point is we don't want to move the goalpost. We don't want to make any additional demands. We are against the idea that new demands be made as condition for the resumption of talks," stressed the source.
If Dr. Baradei is able to give a positive report," then the response should be positive." "I also say that we would be able to pursue our positive ambitions for a relationship with Iran. Obviously there are two sides to the partnership," said the source.
The Irish EU presidency has not decided as yet whether the ministers will issue any conclusions on Iran on Monday. "We want to be able to engage with Iran," said the source, adding that progress on trade negotiations will have to go hand in hand with the dialogue on political and human rights issues.
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