spinning reality around the Iranian elections
By Guest Post • Jun 14th, 2009 at 11:26 • Category: Analysis, Middle East Issues, Newswire, Religion, Resistance
WRITTEN BY MASSOUD NAYERI (art by Reza Abedini)I'm writing this to my friends who don't challenge my intention on speaking the truth. I'm not a fan nor a follower of Mr. Ahamdinejad, I'm just an independent Iranian thinker who loves both countries Iran and the U.S.
The election in Iran more than anything else was a PRACTICE in democracy by millions upon millions of Iranian people who were determined to take a part in their future. More than 80% of eligible Iranian voters participated in this election. That by itself is a unique and unprecedented phenomenon. This means that the idea of democracy which started in the West, specifically in the European countries almost 400 years ago, now is playing out on the streets of Tehran and Beirut. So far we see nothing wrong with that.
Just 24 hours ago, we witnessed an election in Iran that the principle idea (as I've mentioned) goes back to almost 400 years. In this election, the youth, women and intellectuals in Tehran – the capital – supported Mr. Mousavi the ex-prime minister and a painter. The working people voted for Mr. Ahmadinejad, the current President of Iran. The official result was roughly 60% for Mr. Ahamadinejad with 30% for Mr. Mousavi.
There were more than ten thousand election observers from all parties – both national and international - in this election, so any irregularity would have been obvious and would have been announced and pronounced immediately. But the dispute by Mr. Mousavi ends up in a very limited area in Tehran's streets (the capital) through a physical demonstration.
Although I support the Iranian youth and women's aspiration in Tehran, to me the question boils down to which side to take between INDEPENDENCE or FAKE DEMOCRACY. I, myself, always chose independence.
Below I'm attaching headlines of the major media and how they are spinning the reality:
The Christian Science Monitor:
In Iran, first results give Ahmadinejad commanding lead
His challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is claiming irregularities. Police moved quickly to quell small protests
CNN:
Iran election protests turn violent
Financial Times:
Ahmadi-Nejad win sparks violent clashes Moussavi alleges fraud in Iran’s election
Associated Press:
World reacts cautiously to Iranian's re-election
The New York Times:
Ahmadinejad Re-Elected; Protests Flare
The Village Voice:
Iran Election: Everybody Wins!
The Washington Post:
Ahmadinejad Declared Winner in Disputed, Vote Violence erupts as challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi
The Times:
Protests Greet Ahmadinejad Win in Iran: 'It's Not Possible!'
The Wall Street Journal:
Violent Protests Follow Iran Vote
The Nation:
Iran's Ex-Foreign Minister Yazdi: It's A Coup
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When the results of an election doesn't match the wishes of the West, his mediamachines will find always
some (mis)machinations and manipulations : see their reaction about the (international-controlled) elec-
tions in Palestina, with an outstanding majority for Hamas… So what !!! Who is here the manipulator and
who are the manipulated ???
I refer to Masoud Nayeri's article here that is a very sensible one explaining how 80% of Iranians turned up for this unique election and whether anyone like Ahmedinejad or not he seems to have won with some 60% in his favour. I also appreciate the youth and the women's position in their support for more freedom, rights etc and therefore, the opposition by a minority in Teheran led by some Mousavi influenced some votes in his favour. The West has made a song and dance about it, does anyone doubt that? No.
'When the results of an election doesn't match the wishes of the West, his mediamachines will find always
some (mis)machinations and manipulations' this is a quote of De Trog Kamiel another commentator like myself. He or she is making a very relevant point. In the election of 2006 Hamas had won it but the West are completely ignoring that outcome and propping up al-Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas the manipulator and a puppet of Israel, Egypt, EU and the lot. let us not forget that his runner-up was Dr Mustafa Barghouti a very sound candidate able to put forth the cause of Palestine in an intelligent and succinct manner. What happened at that time? Mr Bush did not even let him campaign fairly! This would not have 'matched the wishes of the West, the mediamachines' and manipulations were used, hence Hamas is ignored and we have this Abu Mazen-cum-Mahmoud Abbas who lacks the gift of the gab as a Palestinian Authority's nominee. Is there any doubt that PA has ignored PLO and many level-headed interest groups at the cost of appeasing the West? Please add your further comments if my analysis is incorrect! Cheers!
Congratulations to the People of Iran and to President Ahmadi-nejad.
People of Iran have made their choice. Democracy won. Despite Israeli military threats and American charm offensive, Iranians re-elected their president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by landslide majority.
I suppose the purveyors of democracy are wondering "how come all of these democratic elections seem to be going wrong lately? Too many people are taking our call for democracy too seriously and not voting for the "right" guys."
Perhaps they can find themselves an Iranian Abbas, and deal with him instead!
Mousavi should have done the decent thing and accepted defeat gracefully instead of leading the country into chaos.
Mousavi is acting as if he has some confidential promise of success if he raises hell, gets a riot going, or discredits the election in some way. He behaves like a man with some kind of backers, who have made him promises.
Inside connections? Outside meddlers? If the Imperial Forces go for the Abbas Option they are going to need a stooge, and if they assassinate they are going to need a stand-in.
Let us wait and see who kills whom.
Debbie
For anyone who has actually been to Iran and experienced the frustration of the youth and repression will understand that change needs to happen. The country is crippled by religion and dictatorship, the young need a future no matter what shape or form. Regardless of speculated western influences, a revolution needs to come from within and the youth need to keep going they are smart enough to know their future is bleak in Iran, it's their heritage, it's their country they want to be proud Iranians pushing the boundaries of science, competing with the west in intellect and technology – they currently don't have the chance to do anything other than go to university and live off their parents income as there is no opportunity, what all of you naiive people don't understand is that for these people to live with hope and ambition in the current Iran is impossible – they escape Iran to achieve this! And of course, it's not only the young who feel this way this is across the board from the elderly to cab drivers in every town and city.
Regardless of what you think Mousavi is doing, this is the trigger that the young have been waiting for. It's for their freedom. What you all don't understand and will never know is what actually happens in Iran as you naiive people just assume it's another Muslim country where everyone is supposed to cover up and stay quiet – all I can say is you know nothing! Iranians had this forced onto them and should fight for their freedom because they derse their human rights and not a dictatorship.
Well, I agree, becuz we are getting Iranian election information which has been through many filters. We can hardly know for sure what are the facts, and what is really happening, or why. But there is some kind of organization behind such massive demonstrating, perhaps there is an overwhelming and popular public need for Revolution in Iran which goes beyond just the two candidates and parties vying for victory in this election.
A nation of people, ripe for revolutionary change, may demonstrate, riot and rebel on any pretext and, as the chaos and ashes of the fires of rebellion cool we shall see the forms of a new Revolutionary regime emerge, for better or for worse.
This is sometimes followed by yet a Counter Revolution (as was the Russian Revolution in 1917) which can be counterproductive, but revolution is Revolution. It begets Change! Good Luck Iranians!
i have this impression that the peace movement is embracing ahmadinejad and ignoring mass protests and severe suppression of human rights in iran at the moment simply because the western media is pro mousavi and since the western media per definition is evil, ahmadinejad is the good guy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of logic… and so we can't take hundreds of thousands of young iranians that obviously feel something went wrong serious and we call them westernized money hungry undevout iranians…. This is getting absurd. I never understood why we have to like ahmadinejad and ignore iran's human rights abuses because we are upset with american, british, israeli etc human right abuses. A peace movement that condones iranian human right abuses is not credible when it judges israeli human right abuses. I think we should judge all human rights abuses equally, and to ignore the reports that are coming out of iran because they dont suit our agenda is very dangerous.
S – you raise an interesting point. But you don't explain why a sceptical observer should feel that on this occasion, the western MSM (money-serving media) are uncharacteristically on the side of the angels.
This is an MSM that doesn't care a hoot about democratic outcomes if it doesn't like them. When did you last hear a co-ordinated MSM defense of the elected Gaza administration?
It's an MSM that has, by and large, ignored two months of continuous anti-government protest in Georgia.
Signs of outside interference are all over the last few days in Iran – big, sticky fingerprints. It doesn't mean, of course, that everyone participating in anti-government protests is ill-motivated. This is a program of systematic divide and rule destabilization – aiming to finds 'natural' fissures within Iranian society and crack them wide open.
I think one has to be naive to imagine that the MSM (and the people behind them) who've been hyping up the case for bombing Iran have suddenly morphed into supporters of an ndependent secular Iran. Did you notice how they treated an independent, secular Iraq c. 2003?
@Syd Walker –
all i am saying is that it is not because the western media is pro mousavi that what those kids are doing there should be ignored or deligitimized. There are obviously a lot of people in iran that feel democracy wasnt served in the last elections. It is absurd not to back these voices simply because they have our media on their side. Who cares who else is on their side if they are on the right side? We are too fixated who is on the side of who instead of condemning human rights abuses when we see them happening.
@ S
It seems to me that the fundamental problem for westerners looking in on Iranian society and seeking to influence events for the better, is that the role of 'the west' in Iran – going back several generations – has been bereft of decency.
We like to pretend we are drawing on rich reserves of moral authority, but we are bankrupt.
I suspect the west was involved, not only in the famous 'coup' of 1953, but ALSO in orchestrating the fall of the Shah in the late 1970s. If I'm right about that, we 'westerners' have a lot of Iranian blood on our hands – having already been responsible for the death of thousands of leftists in Iran from the 50s to the 80s, as well as supporters of the Shah at the end of the 1970s.
It's impossible to knowl for sure, but one can make a case that Iran would probably have never become an 'Islamic State' had it not been for persistent western imperialism. Like Hizbollah in Lebanon, Islamic religious solidarity has become a means to exclude and guard against persistent external subversion.
All along, western leaders and their supporters claimed they were interefering in the best interests of Iranians. IMO, we should be very careful before continuing this arrogant behaviour any longer.
When did you last hear Iranians – en masse or though their government – expressing strident opinions about the best choice for Britons to make in UK general elections, whether a monarchy is an intolerable anachronism for the British public, or if the huge number of CCTVs in British cities undermines the civil liberties of British people?
James Petras, Paul Craig Roberts and others agrees that the post-election disturbances in Iran are Western inspired orchestrations.
In OpEdNews (http://www.opednews.com/articles/Iran-Faces-Greater-Risks-T-by-Paul-Craig-Roberts-090617-678.html) he writes:
"Today the street demonstrations in Tehran show signs of orchestration. The protesters, primarily young people, especially young women opposed to the dress codes, carry signs written in English: “Where is My Vote?” The signs are intended for the western media, not for the Iranian government.
More evidence of orchestration is provided by the protesters’ chant, “death to the dictator, death to Ahmadinejad.” Every Iranian knows that the president of Iran is a public figure with limited powers. His main role is to take the heat from the governing grand Ayatollah. No Iranian, and no informed westerner, could possibly believe that Ahmadinejad is a dictator. Even Ahmadinejad’s superior, Khamenei, is not a dictator as he is appointed by a government body that can remove him.
The demonstrations, like those in 1953, are intended to discredit the Iranian government and to establish for Western opinion that the government is a repressive regime that does not have the support of the Iranian people. This manipulation of opinion sets up Iran as another Iraq ruled by a dictator who must be overthrown by sanctions or an invasion."
First, you send in the Mossad, the CIA, the Rendon group and any other extra agitators and wordsmiths you have available, and then you send in some nukes to take out the WMD and their "threat to world peace." A slam dunk!
Oh, we'll send in Halliburton, KBR and a few of your Texas buddies to pump a few gallons of oil to recover the expenses for fuel and overnight lodging for the strike forces. No expense to the US Government or people, and no exposure of your own troops, use private contractors like Blackwater for Security. OK?
huh!
Debbie
@Debbie Menon –
ok, no doubt the disturbances were planned and that they have strong Western influences, but it also seems that the Iranian leaders have met halfway these orchestrations – the violences today, the bomb blast at the Khomeini tomb (which they used to accuse the protesters of terrorism) have most certainly been provoked by the Iranian authorities.
Of course Mr Ahmadinejad is not a dictator, but neither is Iran a democracy. Me too, I preferred a strong Iran opposing the United States and Israel, but this doesn't make Iran the perfect state. Internally, things are going bad for its citizens and they can't have been manipulated into thinking that. So, even if the timing is bad, and probably the things will go in the wrong direction, I think the only solution for Iran would be to listen to its people. Or at least not to shoot at it.