[lbo-talk] NYT Op-Ed: US got what it asked for in Iran's election

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sat Jan 28 17:55:35 PST 2006


URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/opinion/28Derakhshan.html

The New York Times

January 28, 2006

Op-Ed Contributor

Democracy's Double Standard

By HOSSEIN DERAKHSHAN

THE day before Iran's ninth presidential elections last June,

President Bush sent a discouraging message to potential voters. Iran's

electoral process "ignores the basic requirements of democracy," Mr.

Bush declared, and these elections would be "sadly consistent" with

the country's "oppressive record." For Iranians, there was no

mistaking the American president's point: he was tacitly sanctioning

the call that some Iranian exiles and activists had issued for an

election boycott, based on exactly this logic.

An American administration that had called on other Middle Eastern

populaces to vote in flawed elections greeted the Iranian electoral

process with nothing but open disdain. It is worth revisiting this odd

judgment call at a time when Hamas's victory in the Palestinian

elections has raised even more questions about Washington's confused

strategy of democracy promotion.

In Iran last June, the call for a boycott resonated with frustrated

and apathetic voters. Many, if not most, moderates and reform

advocates stayed home from the polls. And we all know what followed:

the philosophy-loving moderate, Mohammad Khatami, was replaced as

president by a radical militant, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a former military

commander who presides over one of the most extreme governments

post-revolutionary Iran has yet had.

That's right: with what appeared to be the endorsement of President

Bush and dozens of American-backed satellite television channels that

broadcast in Farsi, the disillusioned young people of Iran effectively

took one of the world's most closely watched nuclear programs out of

the hands of a reformer and placed it into the hands of a hard-line

reactionary.

Can anyone now doubt that Iranian elections, however flawed, really do

matter? When Mr. Khatami came to power, his declared goals were to

establish the rule of law, demand equal rights for all citizens and

reconcile Iran with the world. He may not have succeeded in all of

those endeavors, but Mr. Ahmadinejad has entered government with

manifestly opposite priorities.

The new president's allies in Parliament recently concluded that

nearly 80 percent of the books published under President Khatami

violated revolutionary values and should be placed under restrictions.

Films that promote feminism, secularism and liberalism are to be

banned. And while President Khatami built his international reputation

on his call for a "dialogue among civilizations," President

Ahmadinejad has reached out to racists and anti-Semites instead.

It's true that Iranian elections are not quite democratic, because the

unelected Guardian Council reserves the right to bar candidates. But

the real problem here is that boycotting semi-democratic elections

ultimately will not make such a system more democratic.

The rise of Mr. Ahmadinejad, and the threat he poses to the stability

of a volatile region, demonstrates that promoting apathy in a

semi-democratic system can only strengthen the radical anti-democracy

forces. And it raises a question as to whether that is what hawks in

Washington actually wanted.

Contrast the "don't vote" message that President Bush sent to Iranians

to the one delivered to Iraqis through a major media campaign and

other costly means: "Your destiny is in your own hands. Disappoint the

anti-democracy radicals and go out and vote."

If the United States is serious about promoting democratic change in

Iran, it needs to try the same approach that brought Iraqis to the

polls despite mortal danger. Mr. Bush and his supporters should

encourage the people of Iran to participate in the next election. And

they should urge Iranians to vote for someone who will make their

country more open and democratic, rather than more threatening, as

Iran under President Ahmadinejad has become.

Hossein Derakhshan writes the Farsi-English blog "Editor: Myself."

* Copyright 2006The New York Times Company



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