Khatami's moderates sweep Iranian polls

Ulhas Joglekar ulhasj at bom4.vsnl.net.in
Mon Feb 21 15:09:14 PST 2000


22 February 2000

Khatami's moderates sweep Iranian polls TEHERAN: Iran's hardline ruling clergy wanted merely to spice up the 1997 presidential race when they approved the moderate candidacy of a relatively unknown mullah named Mohammad Khatami. Instead, Khatami's surprising landslide victory set in motion a reformist juggernaut that, according to weekend results, was sweeping hard-liners out of Parliament, dealing another blow to their shrinking influence. Reform candidates -- who have promised to create a civil society with individual and political freedoms --are riding on Khatami's success, popularity and vision. Khatami's election has been enshrined in the reformist movement. The coalition that won Friday's election calls itself ``2nd of Khordad'', a reference to the date in the Iranian calendar equivalent to May 23, 1997, when the presidential poll was held. Soon after Khatami opened his campaign, he became a magnet for closet liberals and provided hope to his constituency -- the young people and women who were groaning under rigid rules enforced in the name of Islam. To the hardliners, letting Khatami run was a blunder. To most Iranians it was a boon. Here, finally, was a cleric who understood their frustrations and promised something different. He won 20 million of the 29 million votes cast. So far, Khatami hasn't let them down. Taking their cue from his public statements, young men and women have been able to mingle without fearing the Baseej paramilitary forces who used to enforce religious values. Banned satellite dishes are discreetly appearing on rooftops, the mandatory women's head scarves are sliding back to show more and more hair. Khatami, a soft-spoken scholar, does not advocate doing away with the Islamic system that came with the 1979 Revolution. But his moderate interpretation of the religion has been widely accepted by Iranians, most of them devout Muslims. More importantly, Khatami gave Iranians the confidence to criticise the clergy, which saw itself as interpreter of God's word and beyond reproach. Outspoken newspapers have flourished under his rule. Until Khatami's election, presidential races in Iran were stage-managed. The Council of Guardians, a hard-line clique, would nominate the clerical contestants, usually one heavyweight and other unknowns. People felt the elections had little credibiliy and turnout was routinely low. The 1997 race changed all that. Though an outsider, Khatami, a former culture minister, was not totally unknown. His main rival, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, boasted during the campaign that the challenge was welcome. He even quoted a Farsi proverb to emphasise his point: It would be nice ``to heat up the furnace a little,'' he said. After Khatami's victory, Nateq-nouri's boast gave rise to a new joke in Iran. The punch line was: ``The furnace became so hot that it burned down the house.'' The hardliners fought back. Using the judiciary, which remained firmly under their control, they shut down reformist newspapers, although the pro-Khatami culture ministry gave licenses to others. The President's allies were jailed by the judiciary. The reformist interior minister was impeached by the outgoing hardline-dominated Parliament. Intellectuals and students' groups were attacked by hardline vigilantes. But every hardline blow only made the reformists more popular. Khatami became a super-hero. His main advantage is that he is not an outsider trying to vanquish the system, but an insider trying to change it. As the popular desire for change became clear over the last few months, the hardliners started to become accommodating. The conservative Council of Guardians, which screened all candidates for the parliamentary elections, allowed hundreds of known reformers to contest. In previous elections, it had rejected liberal candidates on specious grounds. The Council, which also vets legislation, is unlikely to block the new Parliament for fear of angering the people, said Mohammedreza Zohdi, editor of the independent Arya newspaper. He said supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, although a hardliner, will be loath to resort to extra-constitutional methods. Doing that would allow reformists to accuse him of violating the sacrosanct ideals of the Islamic Revolution's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini. (AP) For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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