Thomas Barnett “recently wrote”:http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/archives2/001875.html about the announcement of former president Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani running in the upcoming Iranian elections. He said that “Rafsanjani’s ideas speak to Iran’s overwhelmingly young and incredibly ambitious youth population. He’s all about individual empowerment and the diminishment of the mullahs’ reach.”
“As mentioned before”:http://www.cominganarchy.com/2004/11/27/irans-nixon/, I just don’t see this. No one I spoke to in Iran, young or old, was rooting for Rafsanjani. In fact many youth in Iran (“as well as intellectuals”:http://iranscan.net/comments/Iran/Weblog/exposing_rafsanjani#comments) accuse him of getting rich off of the state; the only “individual empowerment” that matters to him is his own.
And speaking of “speaking to the youth,” Khamenei has been doing his share saying “that because the country is young, its government must also be young.” Since Raf is one of the older candidates, that must knock him out of the running as Khamenei’s favourite (“so says Hoder”:http://iranscan.net/comments/Iran/Weblog/when_rafsanjani_finally_announced_that), and we all know that _he_ is “the man to please”:http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2005/may-2005/iran-elections-24505.shtml when it comes to elections.
*EDIT:* Seems that Raf only got 55% of the vote when he first ran in 89, and 51% in 93. “Brooding Persian has the stats and comments”:http://broodingpersian.blogspot.com/2005_05_01_broodingpersian_archive.html#111611253067947414.
bq. Mr. Rafsanjani, the moneybag himself, has already served two terms. He is a serious contender now, although he is not very well liked anymore. Apparently he is deemed too rich, too corrupt, and powerful. Even though by all accounts we too are all in love with money, and always aspiring for as much power via that shortcut money provides. Hence our worship of Mammon. We are probably mostly just as corrupt ourselves! Why does he want to be a president anyway?
What was it that Stalin said? It doesn’t matter who votes, it matters who counts the votes…
And not to trivialize your experiences in Iran, but I would bet 90% of the people I knew on the east coast of the US were Kerry voters. But my sample was, shall we say, a little skewed. Just because those you talked to weren’t Rafsanjani fans, that doesn’t mean he has no supporters.
True enough. Although my sample was relatively small, it was definitely widespread, from Shiraz in the south all the way to the Caspian Sea in the north, and many, many “ambitious youth” in between.
I just wanted to relate my experiences, and link to others who notice the same trend.
Isn’t Rafsanjani head cheerleader for the let’s nuke Israel crowd? Why the sudden positive writeups from the NYTimes, Barnett, and others?
Yes.
The only people I have seen write positive things about Raf are people outside of Iran (which is strange since he was so standoffish when he was in power). Not that the Iranians know any better (*cough*… _Khomeini_ … *ahem*…), but they are the ones voting.
Somehow, I find it hard to have much hope in the results of this election. If it were a binding referendum on the continuation or end of the theorcracy itself, that would be different.
I just look forward to when the other shoe drops, and wonder how bloody it will be.
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“Maybe I should have gone to Kerman?”:http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8687486&src=rss/worldNews