Teo Cheng Wee on what Iranians told him about their country.
IN IRAN
IN SOME ways the massive demonstrations currently going on in Iran have surprised me; in some ways they have not.
Iranians have spilled onto the streets since the elections.
PHOTO: AFP
The unsurprising part comes from my interactions with the locals. I was in Iran just a month ago, and many Iranians I met expressed dissatisfaction with current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The surprise is that almost everyone seemed to be resigned to the fact that he was going to win another term — and most said they weren't going to bother voting, much less take to the streets.
It was at the famous Khaju bridge in Esfahan — the cultural centre of Iran — that I met English teacher Ali Reza.
Like almost every Iranian I spoke to — and I've probably chatted with a good dozen people — Mr Reza, a slim man in his 30s, was the one who initiated the conversation.
And like everyone else, after the pleasantries, the conversation turned to, "So what do you think about Iran?"
This isn't small talk. Underscoring Iranians' curiosity is a palpable sense of insecurity about how they are being seen by the outside world.
I say this because our conversation never ends there, after that innocuous first question. They move on to ask your views of the country's political stand, whether you think they should have nuclear power and if you think they are treated fairly by the Western world.
Many of them are aware that sizeable parts of the world see them as nuclear power crazy, religious zealots who scream jihad everyday.
That couldn't be further from the truth. I spent two weeks in Iran and many of the people I met hold moderate views.
They are educated, well-spoken and their women, for all the negativity around how they must all wear headscarfs, are a lot more emancipated and independent than in other Islamic countries.
Most of them blame Mr Ahmadinejad's unnecessary posturing for showing the world a totally skewed image of their nation.
So they cap it off with a careful reminder that most Iranians are not extremists.
And almost all of them would add that they, and many other Iranians, do not share the views of their president — a conservative, religious man backed by the powerful ruling clerics of the country.
"When Ahmadinejad speaks, his views do not represent the people. Khatami — he represents the people," they often said.
Indeed, many still speak fondly of the last person to lead their country — the moderate reformist Mohammad Khatami, who was president from 1997 to 2005.
When I ask who they think will win the upcoming elections, they were certain — Mr Ahmadinejad would triumph.
"Elections here are dirty," said Mr Ali, who said that he wasn't planning to vote, because he knew the incumbent would win again.
But if everyone tells me they dislike their president, and they want to vote for the opposition, surely something should come out of these pent-up sentiments?
Flash forward one month and that's what the anti-Ahmadinejad protesters in the streets seem to be saying.
Reportedly stirred out of their slumber in the run-up to the polls, many of Iran's youths are questioning the landslide victory for the incumbent, triggering the biggest street protests the country has seen in decades.
I'm not saying Mr Ahmadinejad doesn't have supporters. His detractors know that as well, but they are upset at how — in their view — the contest was clearly rigged.
"Where is my vote?" is now their slogan.
Mr Ahmadinejad's base is in the rural areas, places I didn't venture to. It's there that his religious, man-of-the-people image holds great appeal.
Even in the urban areas, there is the odd dissenting voice, like that of Mr Reza's father, who we met together with him at the bridge.
Like his son, he was an English teacher and spoke in flawless English. He said he is perfectly happy with Mr Ahmadinejad.
"He is brave. He dares to speak. It's about time someone stood up to the Americans and George Bush," he told us.
It was a funny sight, seeing the two of them, father and son, bantering and exchanging their opposing views with us.
At points they would rebut each other. Other times, one would listen impatiently and wait for his chance to interject.
They threw up their hands and rolled their eyes, but all in the right spirit, and we had a good laugh for the half hour we spent together.
But the people who hold the same opposing viewpoints are now taking turns to demonstrate on the streets of Tehran. There have been clashes with police and violence, and no apparent end in sight.
Some protesters see Mr Ahmadinejad as a dictator.
PHOTO: REUTERS
At last count I believe there were seven deaths from the protests. It's not funny anymore.
Tags:
demonstrations,
elections,
iran,
politics
Ahmadinejad's Problem With Israel
The Jews have a basic and moral right to exist in their homeland.
(from Ilan Ben-Dov, Ambassador of Israel to Singapore)
Date: Friday, APRIL 24,2009 TODAY
ANOTHER anti-Semitic outburst from the Iranian President, this time at the United Nations Conference against Racism earlier this week, did not surprise anyone in Israel.
Mr Ahmadinejad is acting systematically and with persistence through two channels:
The first is an ongoing attempt to delegitimise the right of Israel to exist. To achieve this, every lie and every distortion is considered tools at his disposal, including the re-writing of history and the denial of the Holocaust.
The second is the Iranian nuclear weapons project. The Iranian President does not try to conceal his wish "to wipe Israel off the map".
It seems there is no limit to absurdity and hypocrisy :Mr Ahmadinejad, a man who, from his very first moment in office did not stop preaching hatred, racism and violence, was addressing a conference that is supposed to combat racism.
Mr Ahmadinejad is a president who is leading a dictatorial regime that violates human rights on a daily basis, suppressing the rights of minorities living in his own country, including the rights of Iranian women. The same person, who preaches hatred, actively supports terrorism through his endorsement of Hamas and Hezbollah.
In his attempt to deny the Holocaust, he is joining a coalition of anti-Semites wishing for the destruction of Israel.
The Iranian President is trying to spread the belief that the creation of Israel is allegedly an outcome of the Holocaust in Europe. He is trying to establish a "theory" according to which the suffering of the Jews in Europe caused them to arrive in the Middle east and to "rob" the land of the Palestinians in order to establish a Jewish state.
He tends to forget that even a lie should be consistent.
First, he denies the very existence of the Holocaust, the murder of 6 million Jews in concentration and extermination camps during World War 2.
Then, he claims that the establishment of Israel (which is unjustified according to his theory) was an outcome of this historic event that according to him did not happen.
History is of course completely different and should be told in a clear, accurate and unequivocal manner : The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel and to the establishment of its own state there is a natural and historic right that has existed for more than 3,500 years.
The Jews became a people, a nation and amalgamated as a religion and culture in the land of Israel hundreds of years before the Holocaust.
The Holocaust was the most traumatic event in the history of the Jewish people and indeed, the history of all mankind. The holocaust emphasised again and strengthened the moral justification for the establishment of a Jewish state and more than this, the urgency for the need to establish a sovereign Jewish state for the Jewish people.
Moreover, it reiterated the natural right of the Jewish people to a state of their own in which they can live with dignity and security, free from persecution and oppression as any other people in the world.
Therefore, the State of Israel was not "given" to the Jewish people as a compensation" for their suffering in the Holocaust.
The State of Israel was established because Jews have a historic and moral right to live in their homeland and this right cannot be questioned.
One of the reasons for the establishment of the State of Israel was and still is the wish to give its citizens and to the whole Jewish people a shelter, a place where every Jew can defend himself from persecution, expulsion and discrimination, things that the Jews were subjected to for may years in exile.
The existence of Israel enables its citizens to protect themselves from people like the Iranian President who wish for its destruction and annihilation.
But this time, history will not repeat itself.
This time, unlike, the situation in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, Jews have a state of their own and this state has the ability to protect itself against those who dream of its destruction.
It is a basic right, a justified right and a moral right.
ILAN BEN-DOV
Ambassador of Israel to Singapore
24 APRIL, 2009.
(with permission http://theinnozablog.blogspot.com )
In reply to ngchengcheong:
The young should not have selective memory by choice or default. They should read about U.S./ British meddling in their country's history and in the history of much of the rest of the world in the last 200 years. Calling Tehran "the Middle East Paris" shows that we still bear the damage to our pysche from this meddling. Always the Western-centred world view with Western-imported references ?
It isn't just "the young" who want "freedom" but freedom should include freedom from a pysche and world view skewed and constrained from being Western-centred. That battle within ourselves for a sense of self - when do we attain that freedom ?
As for the blog:
Draw on SG's electoral experience. If you had looked at the views on the Net and talked to people, dissenssion and dissatisfaction would have come across loud and clear before the vote. But the result of the vote ??
There is a generation gap indeed in Iran.30 years ago the father would curse America and the West. But now, the son, having no memory of Shah,but that of Ayatollahs only, would decent them for being conservatives. I, knowing both worlds, would watch the balance beginning to swing. It is inevitable that the young would want more freedom. Mullahs either reform of be marginalised. Tehran, the Middle East Paris, is taking shape again.
Is there really a vote fraud? Or is there an attempt to undermine the elections?
http://wherebearsroamfree.blogspot.com/2009/06/bias-reporting-alternative-media-vs.html