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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