Iranian MPs Challenge President Ahmadinejad

Frances Harrison of the BBC reported from Tehran on Tuesday that “A group of reformist and moderate members of parliament have now started collecting signatures to summon [President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] to answer questions about his policies. At the same time, the correspondent says, “150 MPs have signed a letter urging the president to base his next budget on realistic assumptions - for example, about future oil prices which are key to Iran's economic forecasts.” This may be the beginning of a more flexible Iran.

This journal holds no brief for the knuckle-dragging President Ahmadinejad, who is an embarrassment to 3,000 years of Persian civilization. At the same time, the facts are that Iran is not a monolithic political entity of “one people, one nation, one leader,” and the political system there does permit a certain degree of dissent. Indeed, according to Ms. Harrison, he is starting to catch heck from those who have supported him in the past.

For one thing, “some hard-line newspapers have started criticising the president in recent days, asking why he has spent so much of Iran’s foreign exchange and complaining about the confrontational language he uses on the nuclear issue. There has also been criticism of the conference the president organised last month questioning the World War II holocaust which lost Iran much sympathy internationally.” There is nothing like ineffective belligerence coupled with the waste of taxpayers’ money to make one’s followers begin to doubt.

Ms. Harrison, however, doesn’t think that this opposition and doubt is going to result in the impeachment of the president. The Iranian system allows any politician to be unpopular, foolish and even crooked as all get out so long as he has the backing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. There is no reason to believe that His Supremacy is dissatisfied with the president at this point.

Nonetheless, 50 MPs asking that he come and answer question is 25 short of the number needed to force him to obey. Six months ago, it is unlikely that 10 MPs would have been prepared to come out publicly with such a demand. If he does appear to reply queries, it would be a genuinely good thing for Iran. Accountability of elected officials is always positive. One awaits the American Congress’ action on parallel matters.

Beyond that, if President Ahmadinejad were to cool his rhetoric, it would make it easier for those outside Iran to do the same. The current diplomatic situation appears to be one of impasse, but an impasse aggravated by heated language is a more dangerous situation than a cold and calculated impasse. It would be a small change, but in diplomacy, small changes add up to big changes – eventually.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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