Parliament Elections in Iran
1. I oppose the idea of people not participating in the election. Even though the current Parliament didn't do much, but at least it didn't help in limiting people's freedom. At least it was an opposing force to hardliners and conservative. No? The only positive out of people not participating in the elections will be a very low turn out, which of course brings up concerns regarding the government's legitimacy. But this awareness for other countries is useful if they put pressure on Iran's government. I personally think as long as Iran's government deals with foreigners, like US, which is not hard by the way, they don't care much about the legitimacy of the government. For example, if Iran gives the supposedly Al Qaida suspects that it hold to US, US will be happy and will get off Iran's back. My point is (sorry for the loooong point number 1!) we can not reply on foreigners to help us as their main interest is their owns, not ours.
2. I was quite happy with the news of some 80 parliament members having a sit-in protest against the latest act of anti-democracy by the conservatives, namely disqualification of many would-be candidates for the next parliament elections by Iran's Guardian Counsel. I got even more hopeful when Khatami said his entire cabinet will resign if the matter is not resolved. This of course would put a lot of pressure on the conservatives, and may result in some major changes in the structure of current government. But for the changes to happen, the reformist, or the so-called reformist (a term preferred by quite many), would need people's support. Big time. However, I have learned that people in Iran understandably do not care about politics any more. They just don't care. That news killed all my hopes. Without people's support, not much is going to change.
3. It was also in the news that Khamenei has asked the Guardian Counsel to rethink about disqualifying current members of Parliament. Basically saying satisfy these 80-90 people, and hopefully things will go back to normal. But I don't know what will happen next. Will the conservatives back up? Will the reformists be satisfied? Will people get involved?
4. Iranians are unpredictable. You never know, maybe the moments many of us have been waiting for is very close. Maybe when you wake up tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, or next week, you hear in TV that a semi-revolution has occurred in Iran. The government has changed, and has got closer to a truly democratic government.
5. I seriously hope point number 4 is not far from reality. What's wrong with being hopeful?
6. That is it for now.
