Forty-three million Iranians spoke loud and clear on Friday, giving a mandate to their incumbent president to proceed with his snail’s-pace progress on reforms aimed at expanding their freedoms.
Their votes backed Mohammad Khatami’s bid to end the religious institutions’ monopoly on power and return it to its rightful owner: all Iranians.
It is time indeed for the Ayatollahs to listen to the “voice of moderation,” as Dilip Hiro, an expert on Iran, put it in his Sunday article in the Observer.
Although Hiro is on target, it is not the right of outsiders to decide what is good for the Iranian people. In this context, two points should be highlighted.
First of all, the landslide victory is not a condemnation of the Islamic republic, a system for which Iranians voted overwhelmingly in a referendum after overthrowing a US-backed dictator in 1979.
Accordingly, the religious establishment has played, and should keep on playing, a role in Iranian society. However, some changes in this role are dictated by global and local changes.
Secondly, the evolution of Iran into a more moderate and free country, where opposition is tolerated within political pluralism, is the choice of the Iranian people, who apparently do not seek a Western model of democracy. After all, this model is not an idol to worship, and deviation from it is not a punishable sin.
It is time for the world, particularly the US and Western Europe, to take a new look at Iran, respect the people’s choice, and extend a hand of help and cooperation. That is, if they want Iran to play its rightful role in regional and world stability.
Iranians definitely want the US and the other key players to change their tunes, although that is still in question. As Hiro says, “holding free and fair elections with a turnout that is the envy of British and American politicians is still no guarantee for a regime trying to win the goodwill of the US. And without that goodwill, the millions who thronged the polling stations last week may well be disappointed.”
In fact, the US has to prove its goodwill toward the Iranians, so that its image as the “Greatest Satan” changes. In any case, the Americans, so keen on promoting dialogue as the only means of settling disputes, should listen attentively to what the Iranians have to say.
On Friday, those people voiced their support for Khatami, a man who has bridged the gap between generations in his country, and who is able to bridge the gap between Tehran and the rest of the world – a sorely needed skill.
