Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Iranian Democracy dips to a new low: Khamenei and the guards are pressuring the parliament to give the cabinet vote of confidence.

Insinuation suggest that Khamenei has ordered the parliament to give a vote of confidence to Ahmadinejad's proposed cabinet, in order to make his government look strong!

In the past three days, members of parliament have been raising serious criticism of the inadequacy, inexperience and political motivations behind selection of unknown, infamous or incompetent ministers!

Most notorious are the proposed Interior Minister (in picture, a revolutionary guard commander, who should have quit military before nomination for civil duties), the Minister of Science and Education (the campaign manager of Ahmadinejad, with dubious credentials and accused of faking a PhD degree), the ministers of education, health and welfare (whose only qualification seems to be two x-chromosomes; and one with a legal charge over her head).

Of course, these ministers and their president have been busy lobbying the parliament, sending them gift boxes, throwing lavish dinner parties, and allocating construction money to their ridings--a move that has raised the objection of the opposition parties, making them bring these "petty" approaches to attention of the house speaker, Ali Larijani.

Suddenly, however, Ali Larijani's mood has changed. He who has been the arch nemesis of Ahmadinejad since he resigned from the position of nuclear negotiator, and whose brother has just taken over the judiciary, seems to have a heart change! He is no longer acting as fairly or critically as he did in the previous vetting sessions, as expected from his job, and he seems more intent on wise-cracking and joking than moderating the objections raised by different parties.

Although Khamenei has not given any written or oral instructions yet (he is yet not THAT stupid, although I am sure that must be forthcoming!), the nominated ministers have been eager to invoke the "we have the supreme leader's blessing" line; which has raised complaints from parliament members who think dropping supreme leader's name is to mask their inability to express their suitability for the job! One conservative member of the parliament has said unless he hears or sees Khamenei's orders in writing, he is not bound to obey! In response to this gentleman, the nominee has said: "there is no need for written orders, we run on his hints!"

Unfortunately, Larijani seems to have suggested that the wishes of the supreme leader are to give this government a pass ... still three more ministers are to defend: ministers of Oil, Housing and Energy ... But, hopes are dimming and some of the members of the parliament are raising objection that if the final verdict is to come from supreme leader, then why should they be wasting their time on evaluation of the proposed cabinet's portfolio!

"Velayat-e Faghih" is launching a frontal attack on the republic ... we are back to OPEN oligarchy ... If this depresses you, watch the art posts I made before this!

By the way, the OFFICIAL number of dead has now reached 72 ...

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

They want to turn your country into a military tyranny. After running a sham of an election, and brutalizing the people who demanded their votes to be counted, they have now dispense any semblance of legitimacy.

Is this what the revolution was all about? For some reasong the revolution has morphed into something more terrible than the reign of the Shah.

As the saying goes: "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"

Naj said...

Anonymous;

I think this regime has done the GREATEST favor to Iran, though: showing it that religious governance is untenable!

What is happening next is perhaps a few decades of military rule ... but at the end of it will be democracy ... strong!

What is 200 years in the age of a nation as old as ours? It took us 200 years to reclaim our language back from arabs ... long road, but steady travelers. We aren't going to fade :)

Anonymous said...

Naj you are right, in the long run tyrants always get the short end of the stick.

It has now been comfimed by a blog called enduring america, “Dr.” Kamran Daneshjoo does not have a Ph.D from the non existent "Manchester Imperial Institute of Science and Technology". He changed it to "Imperial College London"

Naj said...

Anonymous,

Even the Imperial college has said that they never had such a student!! They say he was kicked out of UK university for participating in Salman Rushdi protests!!!

Anonymous said...

This is so funny. This guy is supposed to be in charge of higher education?

Do you have any idea of what increasinly irrelevant parliament would do?

Naj said...

Well, in his defense, and in response to the criticism that the academinc community is PARTICULARLY opposed to this guy, Ahmadinejad had said:

"Instead of acknowledging/appreciateing someone who ensured the integrity of the election [i.e. Daneshjoo], you expect me to pay attention to those who threw Tehran to chaos with the keyword of "fraud"

Ahmadinejad's delusions are over the top!

Parliament is irrelevant! Although Tabesh, the speaker of the minority faction has been waving fingers and threatening to expose them (the guards and Ahmadinejad cronies) I think the military grip on all sectors of society is just too strong to leave room for any hope!

I also think the "resistance" (including Larijani and Hashemi, even) fears tanks on streets, if Ahmadinejad's cornered ... this is bleak!

Naj said...

CLARIFICATION:

"They say he was kicked out of UK university ..."

by "they" I mean supporters of this delinquent Kamran Daneshjoo! I would be very surprised if ANY UK university will kick any student out for participation in protests! (unless of course he has been gathering signatures from those who were planning to kill Rushdi!)

Naj said...

http://it.tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2r6lcgy&s=3
a picture of minister tweaking his CV!!

Anonymous said...

There is total dishonesty in the system. I wonder where Ahmadinejad find these people? Can't he find any of his cronies with a real degree?

Naj said...

This is answer to your earlier question:
http://khabaronline.ir/news-16182.aspx

I don;t know WHERE in Iran's constitution, a PhD is the necessary degree for holding a ministry. And frankly, nowadays every idiot in Iran is some form of a doctor!! PhDs are not what they used to be!

I think what is more troublesome is that portfolios of these individuals do not correspond to positions they are promised!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I don't speak Persian. Could you please just give me the gist of what they are saying.

Naj said...

oh sorry; well I gave the gist in this post already.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. I thought it was something different.

David said...

The Roman Emperor Caligula named his horse to be a member of the Roman Senate.

It sounds like the Iranian Parliament might as well be replaced by farm animals for all the good they are doing right now. The few members of Parliament that are objecting may soon find themselves on trial with the other reformers.

A very strange thing happened today. I am a member of a web community of fans of the Highlander movie and TV franchise. Today, the community's server was hacked by friends of Ahmadinejad with a message against Mousavi. It is one of the strangest things I have ever seen on the internet! Could it be that Ahmadinejad's cronies are waging a world wide cyber war? According to the community's web administrator, the hack was very sophisticated and took most of the day to fix. Have you heard of any similar hacking Naj?

Naj said...

Hi David,

Yes I won't be surprised if the objecting MPs will drop dead, russian style soon!

No I didn't hear about the hack; do you have a screen shot or more details about what the message was? Curious

David said...

Hi Naj,

One of the members of the Highlander board did post a screen shot of the hack. This is a link to her picture:

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/tovelil/weird-entry-page.jpg

Let me know if this link works for you. If not, I can link you directly to the board where this pic was posted.

Naj said...

Hi David; the link works.
But somehow i don't feel this hack was initiated from Iran ... i think it must be an "insider" job! I have not seen this kind of an image anywhere else; and if it was a systematic hack, then you would expect other sites have been infested with it.

I think someone from highlander is playing a prank! just my gut feeling :)