[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid growing dissension among Iran's ruling elite over the president's conduct, former presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi says the post-vote crisis is the product of undervaluing the will of the people. That's characteristic of dictatorships. The people are there to do what they're told.
Mousavi, who is described by some as a symbol of opposition, said Monday that the only way to end the disquiet in Iran is to return to the values that the Islamic Republic was based upon some 30 years ago.
That's either politeness on his part or he's smoking something stronger than Camels.
The crisis that Mousavi spoke of in a meeting with a group of intellectuals and activists was sparked after the presidential election in June in which the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was re-elected with almost two-thirds of the votes. Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, another defeated candidate, claim that widespread ballot fraud in favor of Ahmadinejad had led to his victory.
The fixers didn't even have the foresight to have it come out 51-49 or 51-40-9...
Their supporters, consequently, took to the streets, demanding the annulment of the election in support of reform within the establishment.
Whereupon a benevolent government sent forth its agents to thump knobs on their heads...
Mousavi on Monday said the continuation of the current crisis would damage the political establishment as well as the revolution, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported. "People made the (1979 Islamic) Revolution for freedom. Where is that freedom now? This situation will destroy everyone and will harm the system," he said.
Perhaps people were in favor of freedom in 1979, but what they got wasn't it.
During the meeting, he also urged authorities to give the nod to his request to hold a mourning ceremony for those killed in the post-election protests. "The pro-reform path will continue," said Iran's last prime minister. "The establishment should respect the Constitution and let us gather to commemorate our killed loved ones on Thursday."
That's another characteristic of dictatorships, isn't it? The law exists to keep the powers that be in power. It twists, it turns, it slips, it slides, it slithers on its belly like a snake, and somehow it always reaches the same conclusions: nobody can guide the ship of state like Fearless Leader, usually followed by his family.
Mousavi and Karroubi, in a letter to the Interior Ministry, assured that the ceremony, planned to be held on Thursday at central Tehran's Grand Mosalla -- a prayer location where tens of thousands can gather -- would be a silent one.
Silent demonstrations are the worst kind, next to noisy ones. Best to turn out the basij and thump knobs on their heads if they show up. Better still to just forbid the whole thing, for the Greater Good®, of course.
The government has also come under fire over its detention of those who protested against the election results and over the death of two protesters while in custody. Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi on Monday called on pertinent officials to decide within a week the fate of those protesters who remain imprisoned.
On the issue, Mousavi said detentions would not be able to sap the people's will for freedom. "The killings and arrests are a catastrophe. The people will not forgive those behind such crimes," he said. "The more they arrest people, the bigger this movement becomes. The country of 70 million cannot become a prison for all of them."