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Sunday 27 May 2012

Power play

Hooman Majd, author of "The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran", tries to untangle the events of the past few days:

How could the officials, after all, have altered the hand-written ballots of more than 40m citizens or counted enough ballots in such a short time? It has dawned on many Iranians there might never have been any intention to count the ballots. The Big Lie? ...There is little question that Mr Ahmadinejad enjoys the support of perhaps as many as 15m Iranians, but the results adding another 10m votes to his hardcore base beggar belief. Shock and awe? You bet.

Except it is not working, now that the awe is only at the shameless arrogance of a president. This is not a “velvet” or “colour” revolution, nor is it an uprising that seeks to destroy the regime. It is a true outcry, supported by some clerics and even the old guard of the Islamic leadership, such as Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who protest that the one democratic aspect of the political system, the people’s voice, is in danger of being snuffed out.

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